Your Own Useful Skills

[jack...@bright.net]

I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)

Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf? Stuff you use everyday, or
occasionally, or at least once ("Now that you have prepared your
uranium hexafluoride...")

Another example, one that stops me in the middle of my rant on the
education remit given to children's television in the '70s, is that I
learned about the siphon from the show Valley of the Dinosaurs. They
had to snake a bamboo tube up out of a flooded cave to save
themselves. I didn't believe it would work, but I had a length of
plastic tube, and experimented pulling water out of the sink into the
bathtub. This came in handy when I moved to a house that flooded in
storms; it at least saved some time pulling a puddle over the sill of
the shower and down its drain while I was mopping the other side. (I
still don't know how effective it would be if I were treading water
like my heroes.)

A sidestream of sf, Fred Pohl taught me "How to Count on Your
Fingers". By using my digits as binary digits rather than some
decimal representation, I can count to 31 taking off only one mitten
and no socks! Used it finding a subject line for this post (which I
like to keep below 40 characters, luckily inspiration struck--it was
going to be some form of "The Only Thing We Learn from History Is We
Never Learn Anything from Science Fiction.")

--
-Jack

[tphile2]

Well I think I am fully prepared, trained and expert in what to do if/
when I ever encounter a vampire, werewolf, zombie, an invasion of
alien elephants and the like. that also applies to being kidnapped by
aliens.
Should I start shrinking, then be sure to get rid of all house pets
and any creepy crawlies.
Heinlein juveniles as well as his other books, provide all kinds of
dutch uncle advice but I still won't be eating brains with or without
salt. Other sources says that is medically dangerous anyway.
and if you are going to rescue your astronaut partner, take you space
helmet.

[Jerry Brown]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, jack...@bright.net wrote:

>I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
>advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
>if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
>novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
>Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)
>
>Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?

I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
Jam(UK).

--
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

[Dorothy J Heydt]

In article <lstfi75gaubvrl3s3...@4ax.com>,

I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.

--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 1/31/12 9:25 AM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3...@4ax.com>,
> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, jack...@bright.net wrote:
>>
>>> I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
>>> advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
>>> if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
>>> novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
>>> Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)
>>>
>>> Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?
>>
>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>> Jam(UK).
>
> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
> Or thinks his readers do?"

Ditto. It was one of the few moments I thought that a Heinlein
character was stupid.


--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

[Bill Snyder]

I'd rate that 'way behind _Tunnel in the Sky_, where the hero has
to have it explained to him that his boon companion has
girl-cooties.

--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank]

[Kip Williams]

Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3...@4ax.com>,
> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:

>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>> Jam(UK).
>
> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
> Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
> the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
> remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.

We're not all you.


Kip W
rasfw

[Walter Bushell]

In article <ghpag71cs578g7fc0...@4ax.com>,

Using the segments of the fingers as binary you could count to 2^12-1 or
4095 or more than double that if you use your thumb.

--
It is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant
and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting. -- H. L. Mencken

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-01-31 14:21:42 +0000, Jerry Brown

I've used two versions of it, Kip's and another one, to teach my kids
the order of the planets. Kip's includes the Asteroid Belt, as I
recall, and the other one I knew doesn't.

Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
willing to write a new mnemonic.
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Kip Williams]

Kurt Busiek wrote:

> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
> willing to write a new mnemonic.

I came up with one a while back — it may have gotten edited
subsequently, something out of order maybe, but I'll throw out the form
I can easily find anyway:

My Eleven Ripe Cantaloupes Ultimately Return Your
Very Evil Nurse Unto Sam's
Mom's Aunt's Reversible Satanic
Jalopy, Unless Plausibly Iterating Twin Elvises Reverse
Said Aunt, Turning Ugly Radishes -- Never
Ugly Raisins -- And Normally Unusable Salads
Nicely Eaten, Provided They Understand Nobody Ever
Calculated Earnings Reports, Especially Supremely
Cretinous Harpies And Robotic Overlords; Nonetheless
Xenophobia Exists Near Arkansas.


Kip W

[tphile2]

On Jan 31, 9:07 am, Bill Snyder <bsny...@airmail.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:59:20 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
>
>
>
>
>
> <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> >On 1/31/12 9:25 AM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:

> >> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,
> >> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply>  wrote:

> >>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, jackb...@bright.net wrote:
>
> >>>> I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
> >>>> advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
> >>>> if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
> >>>> novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
> >>>> Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)
>
> >>>> Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?
>
> >>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
> >>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
> >>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
> >>> Jam(UK).
>
> >> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
> >> sake!  He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
> >> Or thinks his readers do?"
>
> >    Ditto. It was one of the few moments I thought that a Heinlein
> >character was stupid.
>
> I'd rate that 'way behind _Tunnel in the Sky_, where the hero has
> to have it explained to him that his boon companion has
> girl-cooties.
>
> --
> Bill Snyder  [This space unintentionally left blank]

There have been plenty of examples of cross dressing or pass for the
opposite gender for various reasons. So that is not so
unusual.especially in that setting where it can get you killed or
worse.
But its not just Tunnel where the character is blind about the other
gender. He does it in his other juveniles including Farmer In The Sky
and even Starship Troopers. but that is mostly due to the
restrictions placed on him by the publishers.
and restrictions or censorship is not always a bad thing. For really
talented writers its a challenge to focus on other things or find
creative ways to work around them

[Anthony Nance]

For the few old ones I know[1], changing whatever handles the "NP"
to "Nachos" works.

Tony
[1] I only learned them in the last decade via my children.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-01-31 17:08:29 +0000, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> said:

> Kurt Busiek wrote:
>
>> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
>> willing to write a new mnemonic.
>
> I came up with one a while back — it may have gotten edited
> subsequently, something out of order maybe, but I'll throw out the form
> I can easily find anyway:

It has the benefit of including spellings, though that makes it a tad
long to remember in the first place.

And Earth is missing.

kdb

[Kurt Busiek]

Hmm.

Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under Nachos.

Not really, no.

My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nachos.

Works, but not as good an image as "Nine Porcupines."

kdb

> [1] I only learned them in the last decade via my children.

[Anthony Nance]

Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote:
> On 2012-01-31 17:20:50 +0000, na...@math.ohio-state.edu (Anthony Nance) said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote:
>>> On 2012-01-31 14:21:42 +0000, Jerry Brown
>>> <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> said:
>>>
>>>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>>>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>>>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>>>> Jam(UK).
>>>
>>> I've used two versions of it, Kip's and another one, to teach my kids
>>> the order of the planets. Kip's includes the Asteroid Belt, as I
>>> recall, and the other one I knew doesn't.
>>>
>>> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
>>> willing to write a new mnemonic.
>>
>> For the few old ones I know[1], changing whatever handles the "NP"
>> to "Nachos" works.
>
> Hmm.
>
> Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under Nachos.
>
> Not really, no.
>
> My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nachos.
>
> Works, but not as good an image as "Nine Porcupines."

Ah, we clearly know different old ones - but probably not
different Old Ones - it's a small universe, y'know.

Tony

[Kip Williams]

Kurt Busiek wrote:
> On 2012-01-31 17:08:29 +0000, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek wrote:
>>
>>> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
>>> willing to write a new mnemonic.
>>
>> I came up with one a while back — it may have gotten edited
>> subsequently, something out of order maybe, but I'll throw out the
>> form I can easily find anyway:
>
> It has the benefit of including spellings, though that makes it a tad
> long to remember in the first place.
>
> And Earth is missing.

No, it's right here. (You had me worried there!)

If you need a mnemonic to remember it, I'll write it in:

My Eleven Ripe Cantaloupes Ultimately Return Your
Very Evil Nurse Unto Sam's

_Elegantly Arranged Robot Tractor; However_

Mom's Aunt's Reversible Satanic
Jalopy, Unless Plausibly Iterating Twin Elvises Reverse
Said Aunt, Turning Ugly Radishes -- Never
Ugly Raisins -- And Normally Unusable Salads
Nicely Eaten, Provided They Understand Nobody Ever
Calculated Earnings Reports, Especially Supremely
Cretinous Harpies And Robotic Overlords; Nonetheless
Xenophobia Exists Near Arkansas.


Kip W

rasfw

[jack...@bright.net]

Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the square-cube law to
have handy the length of the year and relative distance from the Sun
out to Uranus? Never did anything practical with it, tho. And
-shading into uselessness- to get more than about one significant
digit I'd need a calculator, and nowadays my calculator is
internet-enabled...

--
-Jack

[Jerry Brown]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:25:38 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:

>In article <lstfi75gaubvrl3s3...@4ax.com>,
>Jerry Brown <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>>On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, jack...@bright.net wrote:
>>
>>>I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
>>>advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
>>>if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
>>>novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
>>>Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)
>>>
>>>Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?
>>
>>I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>>Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>>has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>>Jam(UK).
>
>I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
>sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
>Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
>the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
>remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.

Oh dear, I wish I hadn't mentioned it now. I'm now expecting Terry to
be along in a moment to call me a drooling maroon or something worse.

[Butch Malahide]

On Jan 31, 8:25 am, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
> In article <lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,

> Jerry Brown  <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>
> >I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
> >Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
> >has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
> >Jam(UK).
>
> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
> sake!  He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
> Or thinks his readers do?"  I would have to consider the order of
> the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
> remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.

Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the only
ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy
G. Biv".

Here's how I remember the order of the planets. Naturally, the ones
discovered in modern times are the farthest out, in order of their
discovery; so Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto come in at 7, 8, and 9. The
earth is obviously number 3, that's why it's called "Sol III" in
science fiction. Mercury, the fastest moving (88 day period) and
formerly tidelocked planet, is of course number 1. Number 2 is the
only other planet inside the orbit of earth; that has to be Venus,
whose phases were famously discovered by Galileo. The 4th planet,
closest to earth after venus, must be Mars, whose canals were mapped
from earth-based telescopes in the 19th century. That leaves Jupiter
and Saturn at 5 and 6; Jupiter must be closer, because Galileo spotted
its four big moons with his telescope, while he couldn't quite make
out the rings of Saturn and didn't see Titan.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Jan 31, 3:13 pm, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dorothy J Heydt wrote:

> > In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,

Yes; minds work differently, particularly when the outer planets are
too far to see, and are mostly big bags of gas anyway, except for
Pluto, which spent a lot of /my/ life inside Neptune's orbit anyway.

While looking for something else online today or yesterday, I saw some
news that one of the large asteroids was about its closest to Earth
and brighter than Uranus; someone replied on the lines of, hey, I may
go out and look at it, then. Um... if you want to, sure.

This isn't the other one that came damn close the other day. That
one, we - they - found - the other day, just about.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:

> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
> willing to write a new mnemonic.

It's still where it is, and still named Pluto, what's the problem?

The *problem* is that the mnemonic doesn't deal with when Pluto comes
inside Neptune's orbit.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd...@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

[Suzanne Blom]

On 1/31/2012 1:28 PM, Butch Malahide wrote:
> On Jan 31, 8:25 am, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
>> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,
>> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>>
>>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>>> Jam(UK).
>>
>> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
>> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
>> Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
>> the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
>> remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.
>
> Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the only
> ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy
> G. Biv".
>

Oh, be a fine guy, kiss me.
(But I don't know plaid cats.)

[Moriarty]

On Jan 31, 11:51 pm, jackb...@bright.net wrote:
> I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
> advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
> if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
> novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
> Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)

That tip is as old as piracy. The story I heard was that pirates wore
eyepatches so that they could fight in bright sunlight, swap their
eyepatch from one eye to another and then go below where they could
keep fighting in the dark. If they needed to come back on deck,
reverse the process.

-Moriarty

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:20:39 -0500, <jack...@bright.net>
wrote in <news:fpagi7p4b6tedm4o8...@4ax.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the
> square-cube law to have handy the length of the year and

> relative distance from the Sun out to Uranus? [...]

No. But then, I also memorized pi to 64 decimal places ...

Brian

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

70 places myself. I knew a guy who'd done 200. Then we heard about
someone who'd done several thousand and decided we weren't even going to
try.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, <jack...@bright.net>
wrote in <news:ghpag71cs578g7fc0...@4ax.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> A sidestream of sf, Fred Pohl taught me "How to Count on
> Your Fingers". By using my digits as binary digits
> rather than some decimal representation, I can count to

> 31 taking off only one mitten and no socks! [...]

You're the first other person I've encountered who does
that, though in my case it was an independent invention.

Brian

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Oh, hadn't heard the "guy" form, it's elegant that "guy" and "girl" both
work. I'm used to "quick" on the end.

> (But I don't know plaid cats.)

Me neither.

Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> writes:

> On 1/31/12 4:33 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:
>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:20:39 -0500,<jack...@bright.net>
>> wrote in<news:fpagi7p4b6tedm4o8...@4ax.com>
>> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the
>>> square-cube law to have handy the length of the year and
>>> relative distance from the Sun out to Uranus? [...]
>>
>> No. But then, I also memorized pi to 64 decimal places ...
>
> 70 places myself. I knew a guy who'd done 200. Then we heard
> about someone who'd done several thousand and decided we weren't even
> going to try.

Yes, exactly. I didn't care enough, and enough people were clearly far
ahead of me, that I never memorized very much. 3.14159265358979.
Enough for most practical purposes :-) .

[Thomas Womack]

In article <e4e739a9-d3d4-457c...@y10g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>,

Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:

>While looking for something else online today or yesterday, I saw some
>news that one of the large asteroids was about its closest to Earth
>and brighter than Uranus;

That surprises me slightly; the list of oppositions at
http://www.redshift-live.com/us/up/updt907010312.htm doesn't list the
bright ones as getting to opposition anywhere near now, and none of
the asteroids listed as magnitude <10 on http://www.heavens-above.com/
is close to as bright as Uranus.

Tom

[Mark Reichert]

On Jan 31, 3:41 pm, David Dyer-Bennet <d...@dd-b.net> wrote:

> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> writes:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 1/31/12 4:33 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:

> >> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:20:39 -0500,<jackb...@bright.net>

> >> wrote in<news:fpagi7p4b6tedm4o8...@4ax.com>
> >> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>
> >> [...]
>
> >>> Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the
> >>> square-cube law to have handy the length of the year and
> >>> relative distance from the Sun out to Uranus?  [...]
>
> >> No.  But then, I also memorized pi to 64 decimal places ...
>
> >    70 places myself. I knew a guy who'd done 200. Then we heard
> > about someone who'd done several thousand and decided we weren't even
> > going to try.
>
> Yes, exactly.  I didn't care enough, and enough people were clearly far
> ahead of me, that I never memorized very much.  3.14159265358979.
> Enough for most practical purposes :-) .

I would just use 355/113, its accurate to within 42 feet over 25000
miles, so unless I'm plotting orbit around the solar system by
hand....

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:34:44 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E.
Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
<news:jg9mpk$ei4$1...@dont-email.me> in rec.arts.sf.written:

> On 1/31/12 4:33 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:

>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:20:39 -0500,<jack...@bright.net>
>> wrote in<news:fpagi7p4b6tedm4o8...@4ax.com>
>> in rec.arts.sf.written:

>> [...]

>>> Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the
>>> square-cube law to have handy the length of the year and
>>> relative distance from the Sun out to Uranus? [...]

>> No. But then, I also memorized pi to 64 decimal places ...

> 70 places myself.

My next step, had I continued, would have been 72: once I
got beyond 32, I was adding chunks of 8, in a 3-5 rhythm.
It's an auditory and kinaesthetic memory: I know how it
sounds and feels to say the string aloud. (Still do, too.)

[...]

Brian

[Wayne Throop]

::::: I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
::::: Space Suit, Will Travel"

:::: Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm

:::: not willing to write a new mnemonic.

::: For the few old ones I know[1], changing whatever handles the "NP" to
::: "Nachos" works.

:: My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nachos.

:: Works, but not as good an image as "Nine Porcupines."

I find planetary mnemonics a bit odd. One is supposed to remember the
planet order by reference to the mnemonic. I find I have to remember
the mnemonic by reference to the planet order.

How I need a drink...

[Wayne Throop]

: Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com>
: Kip's includes the Asteroid Belt, as I recall, and the other one I
: knew doesn't.

Mother Very Easily Made A Jelly Sandwitch Using No Kelp.

[Wayne Throop]

: tphile2 <tph...@cableone.net>
: restrictions or censorship is not always a bad thing. For really

: talented writers its a challenge to focus on other things or find
: creative ways to work around them

Or retire and raise John Thomases.

[Butch Malahide]

On Jan 31, 3:39 pm, David Dyer-Bennet <d...@dd-b.net> wrote:
> Suzanne Blom <bo...@sueblom.net> writes:
> > On 1/31/2012 1:28 PM, Butch Malahide wrote:
> >>
> >> Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the only
> >> ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy
> >> G. Biv".
>

> > (But I don't know plaid cats.)
>
> Me neither.

"Plaid cats" was a mnemonic for the U.S. President's Cabinet: Post
Office, Labor, Agriculture, Interior, Defense, Commerce, Attorney
General, Treasury, State.

[David DeLaney]

Wayne Throop <thr...@sheol.org> wrote:
>:: My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nachos.
>:: Works, but not as good an image as "Nine Porcupines."
>
>I find planetary mnemonics a bit odd. One is supposed to remember the
>planet order by reference to the mnemonic. I find I have to remember
>the mnemonic by reference to the planet order.
>
>How I need a drink...

Alcoholic, of course.

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
in mystic force and magic spelling
Celestial sprites elucidate -
all my own striving can't relate.

"Harry knew pi out to 3.141592 because accuracy to one part in a million
was enough for most practical purposes. Hermione knew one hundred digits
of pi because that was how many digits had been printed in the back of
her math textbook." -HP&tMoR, chapter 9

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[lal_truckee]

On 1/31/12 1:57 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> My next step, had I continued, would have been 72: once I
> got beyond 32, I was adding chunks of 8, in a 3-5 rhythm.
> It's an auditory and kinaesthetic memory: I know how it
> sounds and feels to say the string aloud. (Still do, too.)

If you guys persist with this, you should change the thread title to
"Your Own Useless Skills"

[Robert Carnegie]

On Jan 31, 9:42 pm, Thomas Womack <twom...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
wrote:
> In article <e4e739a9-d3d4-457c-bd47-4b19a0b7d...@y10g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>,

> Robert Carnegie  <rja.carne...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> >While looking for something else online today or yesterday, I saw some
> >news that one of the large asteroids was about its closest to Earth
> >and brighter than Uranus;
>
> That surprises me slightly; the list of oppositions at
> <http://www.redshift-live.com/us/up/updt907010312.htm> doesn't list the
> bright ones as getting to opposition anywhere near now, and none of
> the asteroids listed as magnitude <10 on
> <http://www.heavens-above.com/> is close to as bright as Uranus.

Ah... then either I made a mistake, or it's gone again now.

It may have not been this year's news, even. Sorry!

It just struck me that... well, officially Uranus /is/ naked-eye
visible, barely, if there isn't electric light on your continent, and
I wasn't aware that it was /that/ visible.

[Walter Bushell]

In article
<7b26b463-545d-4b06...@j15g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
tphile2 <tph...@cableone.net> wrote:

> On Jan 31, 9:07 am, Bill Snyder <bsny...@airmail.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:59:20 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

> > >On 1/31/12 9:25 AM, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
> > >> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,

> > >> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply>  wrote:

> > >>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:51:56 -0500, jackb...@bright.net wrote:
> >
> > >>>> I realized Isaac Asimov; not normally known as a font of practical
> > >>>> advice; gave me a tip about shutting one eye when turning on a light
> > >>>> if you want to keep it dark-adapted a little later. (It was in his
> > >>>> novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so it may have come from Jerome
> > >>>> Bixby, Otto Klement, David Duncan, or Harry Kleiner.)
> >

> > >>>> Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?
> >

> > >>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have

> > >>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
> > >>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
> > >>> Jam(UK).
> >
> > >> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
> > >> sake!  He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
> > >> Or thinks his readers do?"
> >

> > >    Ditto. It was one of the few moments I thought that a Heinlein
> > >character was stupid.
> >
> > I'd rate that 'way behind _Tunnel in the Sky_, where the hero has
> > to have it explained to him that his boon companion has
> > girl-cooties.
> >
> > --
> > Bill Snyder  [This space unintentionally left blank]
>
> There have been plenty of examples of cross dressing or pass for the
> opposite gender for various reasons. So that is not so
> unusual.especially in that setting where it can get you killed or
> worse.
> But its not just Tunnel where the character is blind about the other
> gender. He does it in his other juveniles including Farmer In The Sky
> and even Starship Troopers. but that is mostly due to the
> restrictions placed on him by the publishers.
> and restrictions or censorship is not always a bad thing. For really

> talented writers its a challenge to focus on other things or find
> creative ways to work around them

And Lummox with her? hobby of raising John Thomasses.

--
It is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant
and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting. -- H. L. Mencken

[Walter Bushell]

In article <ylfkehuf...@dd-b.net>,

David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> wrote:

> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> writes:
>
> > On 1/31/12 4:33 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> >> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:20:39 -0500,<jack...@bright.net>
> >> wrote in<news:fpagi7p4b6tedm4o8...@4ax.com>
> >> in rec.arts.sf.written:
> >>
> >> [...]
> >>
> >>> Am I the only one to have used Bode's Law and the
> >>> square-cube law to have handy the length of the year and
> >>> relative distance from the Sun out to Uranus? [...]
> >>
> >> No. But then, I also memorized pi to 64 decimal places ...
> >
> > 70 places myself. I knew a guy who'd done 200. Then we heard
> > about someone who'd done several thousand and decided we weren't even
> > going to try.
>
> Yes, exactly. I didn't care enough, and enough people were clearly far
> ahead of me, that I never memorized very much. 3.14159265358979.
> Enough for most practical purposes :-) .

Better to memorize the value of e then. Not so much competition if you
want to log a record.

[Walter Bushell]

In article <ylfk1uqf...@dd-b.net>,

David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> wrote:

> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>
> > Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
> > willing to write a new mnemonic.
>
> It's still where it is, and still named Pluto, what's the problem?
>
> The *problem* is that the mnemonic doesn't deal with when Pluto comes
> inside Neptune's orbit.

Well we don't have to worry about *that* until September 2226. If I'm
alive then I'll deal with it.

[Howard Brazee]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:21:42 +0000, Jerry Brown
<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:

>I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>Jam(UK).

My brain works differently. I can often figure out how the mnemonic
goes by working backwards from the result. Especially this one.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[Howard Brazee]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:59:20 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

>> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
>> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
>> Or thinks his readers do?"
>
> Ditto. It was one of the few moments I thought that a Heinlein
>character was stupid.

Heinlein memorized a log table when he was at the USNA, so that he
could do arithmetic quickly in his head. My brain doesn't work that
way.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:34:35 -0800, lal_truckee
<lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in
<news:jg9q9r$1mq$1...@dont-email.me> in rec.arts.sf.written:

The skill actually did serve the useful, if very minor,
purpose of occasionally amusing my students.

Brian

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:03:35 -0500, Walter Bushell
<pr...@panix.com> wrote in
<news:proto-E22F52....@news.panix.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> Better to memorize the value of e then. Not so much
> competition if you want to log a record.

I stopped after the easy bit: 2.718281728459045. (But that
really ought to be 'want to ln a record'!)

Brian

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:21:45 -0800 (PST), Butch Malahide
<fred....@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:8d9bdd64-4ba8-4edc...@b23g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> "Plaid cats" was a mnemonic for the U.S. President's
> Cabinet: Post Office, Labor, Agriculture, Interior,
> Defense, Commerce, Attorney General, Treasury, State.

Might be even more memorable as 'PLAID CAGTS (hairball)'.

Brian

[Walter Bushell]

In article <wbvlgfou3ow2.j...@40tude.net>,

That would miss the pun.

[Butch Malahide]

I stopped after 2.718281828. I think you've got a typo in the 7th
digit after the decimal point.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:51:16 -0800 (PST), Butch Malahide
<fred....@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:9629b6e4-6892-4f33...@n12g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

I do indeed.

Brian

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:39:33 -0500, Walter Bushell
<pr...@panix.com> wrote in
<news:proto-0E0F1B....@news.panix.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

> In article <wbvlgfou3ow2.j...@40tude.net>,
> "Brian M. Scott" <b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:

>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:03:35 -0500, Walter Bushell
>> <pr...@panix.com> wrote in
>> <news:proto-E22F52....@news.panix.com> in
>> rec.arts.sf.written:

>> [...]

>>> Better to memorize the value of e then. Not so much
>>> competition if you want to log a record.

>> I stopped after the easy bit: 2.718281728459045. (But that
>> really ought to be 'want to ln a record'!)

> That would miss the pun.

Matter of opinion: I think that it would *emphasize* it.

Brian

[Robert Bannister]

On 1/02/12 3:28 AM, Butch Malahide wrote:

> On Jan 31, 8:25 am, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
>> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,

>> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>>
>>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it. It
>>> has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>>> Jam(UK).
>>

>> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
>> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?

>> Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
>> the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
>> remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.
>

> Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the only
> ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy
> G. Biv".

You're doing better than I am. I can't remember a single mnemonic. Even
when I could, I could never remember what the letters stood for.


--
Robert Bannister

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:28:14 -0800 (PST), Butch Malahide
<fred....@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:bb4a1b53-e17f-4b37...@n12g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the
> only ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy G. Biv".

I remember ROY G. BIV, 'Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me', 'Every
good boy does fine', and FACE, though I never needed the
last two. Oh, and 'Neither leisured foreigner seized the
weird heights', which is for the exceptions to 'I before E
except after C, or when sounded like AY as in NEIGHBOR and
WEIGH'. Does the right hand rule for cross products count?

[...]

Brian

[Kip Williams]

Brian M. Scott wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:34:35 -0800, lal_truckee
> <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in
> <news:jg9q9r$1mq$1...@dont-email.me> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>

>> If you guys persist with this, you should change the
>> thread title to "Your Own Useless Skills"
>
> The skill actually did serve the useful, if very minor,
> purpose of occasionally amusing my students.

Mom taught me how to say the alphabet backwards when I was in about
sixth grade. It was useful in solving simple ciphers.

On the other hand, I was inspired by the Sesame Street song where Big
Bird sings the alphabet as though it were one big word, and I
constructed the word that's the alphabet backwards and taught myself to
say it. No applications for that one that I can find, beyond sometimes
amusing a kid.


Kip W
rasfw

[David DeLaney]

Brian M. Scott <b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:

>Butch Malahide <fred....@gmail.com> wrote in

>> I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the
>> only ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy G. Biv".
>
>I remember ROY G. BIV, 'Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me', 'Every
>good boy does fine', and FACE, though I never needed the
>last two. Oh, and 'Neither leisured foreigner seized the
>weird heights', which is for the exceptions to 'I before E
>except after C, or when sounded like AY as in NEIGHBOR and
>WEIGH'. Does the right hand rule for cross products count?

"Only to ten, Mudhead".

And then there's ones like "On Old Olympus' towering top, a Finn and
German brewed some hops". At one point I ran across a post somewhere with
whole reams of these.

[Howard Brazee]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:09:13 -0500, Walter Bushell <pr...@panix.com>
wrote:

>> > Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
>> > willing to write a new mnemonic.
>>
>> It's still where it is, and still named Pluto, what's the problem?
>>
>> The *problem* is that the mnemonic doesn't deal with when Pluto comes
>> inside Neptune's orbit.
>
>Well we don't have to worry about *that* until September 2226. If I'm
>alive then I'll deal with it.

What was the mnemonic when it was inside of Neptune's orbit?

[lal_truckee]

On 1/31/12 6:13 PM, Kip Williams wrote:
>>
>
> Mom taught me how to say the alphabet backwards when I was in about
> sixth grade. It was useful in solving simple ciphers.

also in passing street DUI testing.

[art...@yahoo.com]

On Jan 31, 7:51 am, jackb...@bright.net wrote:

> Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf?  Stuff you use everyday, or
> occasionally, or at least once ("Now that you have prepared your
> uranium hexafluoride...")

I always bring a towel.

[Kip Williams]

David DeLaney wrote:
> Brian M. Scott<b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>> Butch Malahide<fred....@gmail.com> wrote in
>>> I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the
>>> only ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy G. Biv".
>>
>> I remember ROY G. BIV, 'Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me', 'Every
>> good boy does fine', and FACE, though I never needed the
>> last two. Oh, and 'Neither leisured foreigner seized the
>> weird heights', which is for the exceptions to 'I before E
>> except after C, or when sounded like AY as in NEIGHBOR and
>> WEIGH'. Does the right hand rule for cross products count?
>
> "Only to ten, Mudhead".
>
> And then there's ones like "On Old Olympus' towering top, a Finn and
> German brewed some hops". At one point I ran across a post somewhere with
> whole reams of these.

"...viewed a hop," as I recall it, but I was never in med school, so
nobody's life depended on me knowing that.


Kip W
rasfw

[Dan Goodman]

The only one I can consistently remember is one I made up myself:
Guacamole, Lettuce, Bacon, and Tomato.



--
Dan Goodman

[Harri Tavaila]

Umm...

I looked at your figure and for my eternal shame I hvae to admit that I
didn't trust my memory, so I checked:

It should be 2,718281_8_28459045

Was that intentional maybe? I'm not really autistic but I still don't
get other peoples jokes sometimes.

H Tavaila

[David Goldfarb]

In article <slrnjigpk...@gatekeeper.vic.com>,

David DeLaney <d...@vic.com> wrote:
>Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
> in mystic force and magic spelling
>Celestial sprites elucidate -
> all my own striving can't relate.

When I heard that one it ended differently. Strike out the last
line above, and append:

"For me the lexicon's full weight.
If Nature gain, who can complain,
Tho' Dr. Johnson fulminate?"

--
David Goldfarb |"Federico Fellini brought his own security to
goldf...@gmail.com | tonight's show...and they were six of the
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | toughest clown midgets I've ever seen."
| -- Billy Crystal

[Ahasuerus]

FWIW, 2.7 - Jackson-1 - Jackson-1 - Texas - Texas-times-two - Texas
has been a handy formula for a long time. Or, I suppose, it could be
used the other way around if you got an A in math and a C in
history :-)

[Mike Dworetsky]

Uranus is just visible, under ideal conditions, as is asteroid Vesta, at
opposition. This is due to Vesta's relatively high albedo.

Not long after William Herschel discovered Uranus and it was confirmed as a
planet rather than a comet, several other astronomers searched through their
past records and found it recorded as a star of about 6th magnitude, but
none of them had made systematic studies that allowed them note the fact
that it had moved.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

[Mike Dworetsky]

Suzanne Blom wrote:

> On 1/31/2012 1:28 PM, Butch Malahide wrote:
>> On Jan 31, 8:25 am, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote:
>>> In article<lstfi75gaubvrl3s3cbt7gclaciqbiu...@4ax.com>,
>>> Jerry Brown<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.RemoveThisBitToReply> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I still use Kip Russell's mnemonic for the planet order from "Have
>>>> Space Suit, Will Travel" over thirty years since first reading it.
>>>> It has the additional side effect of reminding me that Jelly(US) ==
>>>> Jam(UK).
>>>
>>> I read that when it was published in F&SF and said "Oh for Pete's
>>> sake! He needs a mnemonic to remember the order of the planets!?
>>> Or thinks his readers do?" I would have to consider the order of
>>> the planets, which I know I already knew about age eight, to
>>> remember (or more likely guess at) the mnemonic.
>>
>> Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever; the
>> only ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy
>> G. Biv".

Richard of York gave battle in vain.

>>
> Oh, be a fine guy, kiss me.
> (But I don't know plaid cats.)

Old bald astronomer found guilty, killed mistress.

Until a revamp of spectral classification, astronomers had three classes of
cool stars with chemical peculiarities (which turned out to be due to
stellar evolution and nuclear processes) called R, N, and S stars. These
were tagged on at the cool end of the sequence.

So the sequence was OBAFGKMRNS, or "Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now,
sweetie!"

Some of the early spectroscopists were notorious male chauvanists.

[Juho Julkunen]

In article <jg9q9r$1mq$1...@dont-email.me>, lal_t...@yahoo.com says...

>
> On 1/31/12 1:57 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> > My next step, had I continued, would have been 72: once I
> > got beyond 32, I was adding chunks of 8, in a 3-5 rhythm.
> > It's an auditory and kinaesthetic memory: I know how it
> > sounds and feels to say the string aloud. (Still do, too.)
>

> If you guys persist with this, you should change the thread title to
> "Your Own Useless Skills"

Hey, I found in high school that remembering the atomic numbers helped
in memorizing strings of digits, like phone numbers, by roughly halving
the number of units to remember.

Of course, as a consequence, I didn't have that much need for
remembering phone numbers.

--
Juho Julkunen

[Michael Stemper]

In article <jg981r$bih$1...@dont-email.me>, Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>On 2012-01-31 17:08:29 +0000, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> said:

>> Kurt Busiek wrote:

>>> Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
>>> willing to write a new mnemonic.
>>

>> I came up with one a while back — it may have gotten edited
>> subsequently, something out of order maybe, but I'll throw out the form
>> I can easily find anyway:
>
>It has the benefit of including spellings, though that makes it a tad
>long to remember in the first place.
>
>And Earth is missing.

Roger MacBride Allen!

(What do you mean, this wasn't a YASID?)

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
This sentence no verb.

[Walter Bushell]

In article <92bhi7t6o1vmnd4s7...@4ax.com>,

Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:

> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:09:13 -0500, Walter Bushell <pr...@panix.com>
> wrote:
>
> >> > Pluto not being a planet any more does fuck it up a bit, but I'm not
> >> > willing to write a new mnemonic.
> >>
> >> It's still where it is, and still named Pluto, what's the problem?
> >>
> >> The *problem* is that the mnemonic doesn't deal with when Pluto comes
> >> inside Neptune's orbit.
> >
> >Well we don't have to worry about *that* until September 2226. If I'm
> >alive then I'll deal with it.
>
> What was the mnemonic when it was inside of Neptune's orbit?

The same, you rank them by average distance from the Sun, or what gives
the same result the escape velocity from their orbit. See we know that
Pluto is a moon of Neptune that was knocked out of orbit by a slightly
slower Slaver space ship, at least if we are not in Unknown Space.

[tphile2]

and how usefull has these mnemonics been for everyone? How often has
anyone used "knowing pi to 20 places" in everyday life? or the
quadratic formula for that matter.
Perhaps on rare occassions a sf writer might need to reference the
planetary body order but what we need here is a mnemonic for FICTIONAL
planetary body order. Theres vulcan inside the orbit of mercury,
planet X, Kobold. The earth on the other side of the sun and then
there is all the DC Comic Earths that existed before Crisis.
and then we need a mnemonic to keep track of all the other mnemonics

[William F. Adams]

For my part, I've been more often disappointed by how often things are
wrong --- while it's fantasy, I was always irritated that Jack Vance
indicated hickory (or pecan) was not a wood suitable for making bows
in his _Lyonesse Trilogy_.

I did learn a very good work ethic from Hal Gordon's _Divers Down!
(Adventure Under Hawaiian Seas) though.

William

[James Nicoll]

In article <1IudnU8X8-ImnrTS...@bt.com>,

I seem to recall an old SciAm article about Galileo and how he not
only noticed Uranus but noted that it had moved but then failed to
make the cognitive leap to "new planet".

--
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)

[Mike Dworetsky]

Possibly that was Neptune; I recall what might be the same article.

[Michael Stemper]

In article <9af0f891-7d0a-4997...@f30g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>, tphile2 <tph...@cableone.net> writes:

> and how usefull has these mnemonics been for everyone? How often has
>anyone used "knowing pi to 20 places" in everyday life? or the
>quadratic formula for that matter.

I've never seen, and can hardly imagine, a mnemonic for the quadratic formula.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>

Why doesn't anybody care about apathy?

[Brian M. Scott]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:21:41 +0200, Harri Tavaila
<Harri....@helsinki.fi> wrote in
<news:jgasmb$ik2$1...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

No, it was my finger taking on a life of its own and making
a most annoying typo.

Brian

[tphile2]

On Feb 1, 12:15 pm, mstem...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper)
wrote:

> In article <9af0f891-7d0a-4997-ad50-c5b852b3a...@f30g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>, tphile2 <tphi...@cableone.net> writes:
>
> > and how usefull has these mnemonics been for everyone?  How often has
> >anyone used "knowing pi to 20 places" in everyday life?  or the
> >quadratic formula for that matter.
>
> I've never seen, and can hardly imagine, a mnemonic for the quadratic formula.
>
> --
> Michael F. Stemper
> #include <Standard_Disclaimer>
> Why doesn't anybody care about apathy?

That was a riff from the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, where Kathleen
Turner goes back in time to her high school years and comments on
never having to use Algebra. We learn lots of things that we are
never likely to use or need.
This also reminds me of a scene in Sherlock Holmes A Study In
Scarlet. Watson is shocked that Holmes does not know anything about
the planets and procedes to forget it because a brain is like a
storage space and one has to fill it with only essential info (or
something to that effect) but he contradicts himself because he knows
all kinds of trivia on an unlimited list of subjects.

[James Nicoll]

In article <OuCdnd_v8PEG6rTS...@bt.com>,

Wikipedia supports you and not me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune

"Galileo's drawings show that he first observed Neptune on December
28, 1612, and again on January 27, 1613. On both occasions, Galileo
mistook Neptune for a fixed star when it appeared very close - in
conjunction - to Jupiter in the night sky;[20] hence, he is not credited
with Neptune's discovery."

[Brian M. Scott]

On Wed, 1 Feb 2012 09:28:10 -0000, Mike Dworetsky
<plati...@pants.btinternet.com> wrote in
<news:SIqdnSiSs4YxmLTS...@bt.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:

[...]

> So the sequence was OBAFGKMRNS, or "Oh be a fine girl,
> kiss me right now, sweetie!"

> Some of the early spectroscopists were notorious male
> chauvanists.

I learnt a slightly different version that can be
interpreted in highly unchauvinistic fashion: substitute
SMACK for SWEETIE.

Brian

[Brian M. Scott]

On 01 Feb 2012 04:31:32 GMT, Dan Goodman
<dsg...@iphouse.com> wrote in
<news:4f28c024$0$79801$8046...@auth.newsreader.iphouse.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:

> On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:21:42 +0800, Robert Bannister wrote:

[...]

>> You're doing better than I am. I can't remember a single
>> mnemonic. Even when I could, I could never remember what
>> the letters stood for.

> The only one I can consistently remember is one I made up
> myself: Guacamole, Lettuce, Bacon, and Tomato.

You don't have one for BDSM? (And doesn't the guacamole
feel a bit of a foreigner in that company?)

Brian

[Kay Shapero]

In article <Qc1Wq.3$rI...@newsfe05.iad>, mrk...@gmail.com says...

>

>
> On the other hand, I was inspired by the Sesame Street song where Big
> Bird sings the alphabet as though it were one big word, and I
> constructed the word that's the alphabet backwards and taught myself to
> say it. No applications for that one that I can find, beyond sometimes
> amusing a kid.
>

Where I am of that generation that cannot spell "encyclopedia" without
thinking of Jiminy Cricket. :)
--
Kay Shapero
http://www.kayshapero.net
Address munged, to email use kay at the above domain (everything after
the www.)

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

In article <MPG.29935382a...@news.eternal-september.org>,

Kay Shapero <k...@invalid.net> wrote:
>In article <Qc1Wq.3$rI...@newsfe05.iad>, mrk...@gmail.com says...
>>
>
>>
>> On the other hand, I was inspired by the Sesame Street song where Big
>> Bird sings the alphabet as though it were one big word, and I
>> constructed the word that's the alphabet backwards and taught myself to
>> say it. No applications for that one that I can find, beyond sometimes
>> amusing a kid.
>>
>
>Where I am of that generation that cannot spell "encyclopedia" without
>thinking of Jiminy Cricket. :)

I'm no fool, no siree!
--
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

[Kay Shapero]

In article <LypFn...@kithrup.com>, gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu says...

>
> In article <slrnjigpk...@gatekeeper.vic.com>,
> David DeLaney <d...@vic.com> wrote:
> >Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
> > in mystic force and magic spelling
> >Celestial sprites elucidate -
> > all my own striving can't relate.
>
> When I heard that one it ended differently. Strike out the last
> line above, and append:
>
> "For me the lexicon's full weight.
> If Nature gain, who can complain,
> Tho' Dr. Johnson fulminate?"

While around here the mnemonic starts out "Now I know a charm
unfailing" but I've forgetten the rest of it which I suppose says
something about mnemonics... :)

Pause for a quick google....

Aha - I love the Internet! Here it is:

Now I know a charm unfailing,
An artful charm for tasks availing,
Intricate results entailing,
Not in too exacting mood;
Poetry is pretty good.
Try the talisman; let be
Adverse ingenuity.

[William December Starr]

In article <ghpag71cs578g7fc0...@4ax.com>,
jack...@bright.net said:

> A sidestream of sf, Fred Pohl taught me "How to Count on Your
> Fingers". By using my digits as binary digits rather than some
> decimal representation, I can count to 31 taking off only one
> mitten and no socks!

Related, sort of: the (Seventh) Doctor cobbling up a communication
device from junk found around the house in Ben Aaronovitch's
awesome 1993 Doctor Who novel, _Transit_:

He got the keyboard from an old Olivetti typewriter that he
found hidden in the bottom drawer of the kitchen cabinet under
a loose pile of yellowing _Dandys_. He allowed himself to be
diverted for a couple of minutes by the adventures of Desperate
Dan before continuing. The CPU was salvaged from two pocket
calculators and the disposable personal organizer that came
with the June 2005 edition of _Der Spiegel_. He generated the
hex code by pretending that he had sixteen fingers.

(and the rest of the scene is:)

The VDU posed a problem until he uncovered the front end of an
oscilloscope under the living-room sofa and mated it with the
guts of a Betamax VCR. Since he wanted two-way communication
he incorporated a minicassette recorder, the type popular with
journalists in the 1970s. Vision was tricky so he compromised
by building up a compound eye from leftover optical fibre.

The bread board was used to mount the silicon. Since he seemed
to have misplaced his soldering iron, he stoked up the Aga and
used a couple of wooden-handled screwdrivers in rotation. The
whole misshapen contraption used up two rolls of gaffer tape
and completely covered the kitchen table. It plugged into the
light socket in the larder at one end and the cable to the dish
at the other.

He was astonished when it worked.

And he still had the two tin lids that he had pocketed while
preparing supper. So much for foresight.

-- wds

[Butch Malahide]

On Feb 1, 12:15 pm, mstem...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper)
wrote:
>

> I've never seen, and can hardly imagine, a mnemonic for the quadratic formula.

"Complete the square" is a pretty good one.

[William December Starr]

In article <SIqdnSiSs4YxmLTS...@bt.com>,
"Mike Dworetsky" <plati...@pants.btinternet.com> said:

>> Butch Malahide wrote:
>>
>>> Same here. I can never remember mnemonics. Well, hardly ever;
>>> the only ones I know are "plaid cats" and "Roy G. Biv".
>
> Richard of York gave battle in vain.

I never liked either of those because I have trouble believing in
indigo; it looks to me that blue goes straight to violet. (I think
I read somewhere that Isaac Newton created it because he desperately
wanted there to be seven -- ooh, magic number! -- colors in the
prismatic spectrum instead of a mundane six... probably just an
urban legend, alas).

-- wds

[Kip Williams]

Kay Shapero wrote:
> In article<Qc1Wq.3$rI...@newsfe05.iad>, mrk...@gmail.com says...
>>
>> On the other hand, I was inspired by the Sesame Street song where Big
>> Bird sings the alphabet as though it were one big word, and I
>> constructed the word that's the alphabet backwards and taught myself to
>> say it. No applications for that one that I can find, beyond sometimes
>> amusing a kid.
>
> Where I am of that generation that cannot spell "encyclopedia" without
> thinking of Jiminy Cricket. :)

Not unlike my elders who spell Mississippi by singing it. (The song is
available at archive.org.)


Kip W
rasfw

[William December Starr]

In article <h2kWq.7653$JN6....@newsfe13.iad>,

Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com> said:

> Not unlike my elders who spell Mississippi by singing it. (The
> song is available at archive.org.)

For "Mississippi" I just remember that every letter that you think
might be doubled, is.

-- wds

[Dr. Rufo]

Holmes sees no contradiction because the chinoise/sieve he uses is
based on HIS OWN valuation of the individual facts.

[Dr. Rufo]

Kay Shapero wrote:
> In article <Qc1Wq.3$rI...@newsfe05.iad>, mrk...@gmail.com says...
>
>> On the other hand, I was inspired by the Sesame Street song where Big
>> Bird sings the alphabet as though it were one big word, and I
>> constructed the word that's the alphabet backwards and taught myself to
>> say it. No applications for that one that I can find, beyond sometimes
>> amusing a kid.
>>
>
> Where I am of that generation that cannot spell "encyclopedia" without
> thinking of Jiminy Cricket. :)

It can be even worse, I *hear* him singing it. ;-)

[Kip Williams]

Dr. Rufo wrote:

> Kay Shapero wrote:

>> Where I am of that generation that cannot spell "encyclopedia" without
>> thinking of Jiminy Cricket. :)
>
> It can be even worse, I *hear* him singing it. ;-)

Nothing wrong with listening to Cliff Edwards sing. He's on my iPod.


Kip W
rasfw

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:38:53 -0500, Kip Williams <mrk...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Not unlike my elders who spell Mississippi by singing it. (The song is
>available at archive.org.)

I say it with a cadence, which works.

And of course, there's the old joke:

Emma come first, Den I come.
Den two asses come togeder.
I come once-a-mora.
Two asses, they come togeder again.
I come again and pee twice.
Then I come one lasta time.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[Larry]

In article <ghpag71cs578g7fc0...@4ax.com>, jack...@bright.net

says...

> Anybody pick up useful stuff from sf? Stuff you use everyday, or
> occasionally, or at least once ("Now that you have prepared your
> uranium hexafluoride...")

Heinlein taught me how to make a dangerously unstable explosive by mixing
ammonia and iodine. _Farnham's Freehold_, I think. I had fun with it on
college, smearing a thin layer on a concrete floor while it was wet. After it
dried, people struck mini explosions when they walked over it. The iodine
stains eventually faded.

[Dan Tilque]

Mike Dworetsky wrote:
> Suzanne Blom wrote:
>
>> Oh, be a fine guy, kiss me.
>
> Old bald astronomer found guilty, killed mistress.
>
> Until a revamp of spectral classification, astronomers had three classes
> of cool stars with chemical peculiarities (which turned out to be due to
> stellar evolution and nuclear processes) called R, N, and S stars.
> These were tagged on at the cool end of the sequence.

>
> So the sequence was OBAFGKMRNS, or "Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right
> now, sweetie!"

There's now two more additions to the spectral types for brown dwarfs: L
and T. I have yet to see a good mnemonic for OBAFGKMLT.

Some even add a class Y for objects with too little mass to be brown
dwarfs. I'm not sure if Jupiter counts as class Y or not. I haven't even
seen anyone attempt a mnemonic for OBAFGKMLTY. Not that I've looked, though.

--
Dan Tilque

"But you can't argue with the free market, Roy! It speaks,
like, Marketese or something!"
-- Rich Burlew

[Michael Stemper]

In article <c5b88220-1c38-40ba...@p21g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, Butch Malahide <fred....@gmail.com> writes:
>On Feb 1, 12:15=A0pm, mstem...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:

>> I've never seen, and can hardly imagine, a mnemonic for the quadratic for=

>mula.
>
>"Complete the square" is a pretty good one.

I wouldn't call "deriving" a "mnemonic".

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>

A bad day sailing is better than a good day at the office.

[David DeLaney]

Dan Tilque <dti...@frontier.com> wrote:

>Mike Dworetsky wrote:
>> So the sequence was OBAFGKMRNS, or "Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right
>> now, sweetie!"
>
>There's now two more additions to the spectral types for brown dwarfs: L
>and T. I have yet to see a good mnemonic for OBAFGKMLT.

"...kiss me, like this!"

>Some even add a class Y for objects with too little mass to be brown
>dwarfs. I'm not sure if Jupiter counts as class Y or not. I haven't even
>seen anyone attempt a mnemonic for OBAFGKMLTY. Not that I've looked, though.

"...kiss me, like this! ... YOWZA!"

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Walter Bushell]

In article <jge5pl$h7l$1...@dont-email.me>,

Dan Tilque <dti...@frontier.com> wrote:

> There's now two more additions to the spectral types for brown dwarfs: L
> and T. I have yet to see a good mnemonic for OBAFGKMLT.

Oh, be a fine girl kiss me long tongue!

--
It is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant
and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting. -- H. L. Mencken

[Raymond Daley]

"David DeLaney" <d...@gatekeeper.vic.com> wrote in message
news:slrnjigpk...@gatekeeper.vic.com...
> Wayne Throop <thr...@sheol.org> wrote:
>>:: My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nachos.
>>:: Works, but not as good an image as "Nine Porcupines."
.

Totally learning both those, they are well cool.

> "Harry knew pi out to 3.141592 because accuracy to one part in a million
> was enough for most practical purposes. Hermione knew one hundred digits
> of pi because that was how many digits had been printed in the back of
> her math textbook." -HP&tMoR, chapter 9

Thats 3 things I have in common with Mr Potter then.
I know pi that far, we both wear glasses, we've both got a scar on our
heads.
I did USED to have brown hair too. Before I went very grey ;-)

[Kip Williams]

Walter Bushell wrote:
> In article<jge5pl$h7l$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Dan Tilque<dti...@frontier.com> wrote:
>
>> There's now two more additions to the spectral types for brown dwarfs: L
>> and T. I have yet to see a good mnemonic for OBAFGKMLT.
>
> Oh, be a fine girl kiss me long tongue!

Now I'm hearing my old office partner, Geoff, in the voice of Jar Jar
Binks: "Meesa so HAW-NY! Meesa love you long-long time!"


Kip W
rasfw

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I never mixed anything close to the quantities used in FF; that stuff
scared me even in highschool.

Verne's _The Mysterious Island_ had them making nitroglycerin, but I
think not with enough details to actually do it.

--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd...@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

[Howard Brazee]

On Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:50:34 -0600, David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net>
wrote:

>> Heinlein taught me how to make a dangerously unstable explosive by mixing
>> ammonia and iodine. _Farnham's Freehold_, I think. I had fun with it on
>> college, smearing a thin layer on a concrete floor while it was wet. After it
>> dried, people struck mini explosions when they walked over it. The iodine
>> stains eventually faded.
>
>I never mixed anything close to the quantities used in FF; that stuff
>scared me even in highschool.
>
>Verne's _The Mysterious Island_ had them making nitroglycerin, but I
>think not with enough details to actually do it.

And we have a fair amount of people popping away from our current
world who know how to make gunpowder. So I know the formula, even
if I have never observed saltpeter.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Feb 2, 4:07 pm, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:50:34 -0600, David Dyer-Bennet <d...@dd-b.net>

> wrote:
>
> >> Heinlein taught me how to make a dangerously unstable explosive by mixing
> >> ammonia and iodine. _Farnham's Freehold_, I think. I had fun with it on
> >> college, smearing a thin layer on a concrete floor while it was wet. After it
> >> dried, people struck mini explosions when they walked over it. The iodine
> >> stains eventually faded.

The Department of Homeland Security says "hi". :-)

> >I never mixed anything close to the quantities used in FF; that stuff
> >scared me even in highschool.
>
> >Verne's _The Mysterious Island_ had them making nitroglycerin, but I
> >think not with enough details to actually do it.
>
> And we have a fair amount of people popping away from our current
> world who know how to make gunpowder.    So I know the formula, even
> if I have never observed saltpeter.

Do you know what that is? (I don't. I assume I could find out.)

[Walter Bushell]

In article <d3dli794012tflkp4...@4ax.com>,

Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:

> And we have a fair amount of people popping away from our current
> world who know how to make gunpowder. So I know the formula, even
> if I have never observed saltpeter.

It was in your food in the college dining room. >;)(