ACCORDING TO GUESSTIMATES, THIS LOVELY LITTLE SITE CREATED 21 YEARS AGO, HAS AT LEAST SO FAR HAD 537,324 UNIQUE READERS... WE, GUS AND HIS PUB MATES, THOUGHT THAT WE DESERVED A PAT ON THE BACK, BUT FAR MORE KUDOS FOR THE MANAGEMENT — AND I.T. PERSONNEL — OF THE SITE WHICH HAS GIVEN "CARTE BLANCHE" FOR THE CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTARIES. 

WE MAY BE UNIQUE IN AUSTRALIA, IN DEFENDING RUSSIA AGAINST WESTERN AGGRESSION. RUSSOPHOBIA, UNLIKE ANTISEMITISM, IS ALLOWED AND UNFORTUNATELY ENCOURAGED IN THIS COUNTRY MOSTLY BECAUSE OUR WESTERN GOVERNMENT AND WESTERN MEDIA HAVE ALLIED IN A HUGE CONSPIRACY OF DECEITFUL PROPAGANDA AGAINST PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN AND AGAINST RUSSIA IN GENERAL. OUR INFORMATION COMES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, INCLUDING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA — WHICH IS 99 PER CENT CLOSE TO THE TRUTH.

SO, WE SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT DAILY.

SIMILARLY, WE FIGHT FOR THE GLOBAL WARMING SCIENTISTS OF THE IPCC WHO ARE MALIGNED BY VARIOUS SECTORS OF POLITICAL RIGHTWING AND THEIR FOGHORNS, AKA THE MURDOCH MEDIA — ITSELF SETTING THE TUNE FOR MOST OTHERS.

OTHER ISSUES HAVE PEPPERED THIS SITE FROM "HOW TO BE HAPPY" TO HOW THE AMERICAN UNITED STATES HAVE BEEN THE MOST DECEITFUL COUNTRY ON THE PLANET, IN ORDER TO BE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL.

PRESENTLY, THE U.S. EMPIRE IS CRACKING AT THE SEAMS AND IT'S FIGHTING HARD TO STAY NUMBER ONE. THE REST OF THE "NON-ALIGNED WORLD" IS PROMOTING MULTIPOLARITY.

UNTIL THE WEST STOPS LYING AND STOPS SUPPORTING THE MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY ON THE PLANET — THE NAZI KIEV REGIME OF YUCKRAINE — WE ARE FACING A DETERIORATING GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION THAT COULD END UP BADLY — MOSTLY FOR AMERICA AND ITS LACKEYS, INCLUDING AUSTRALIA, BUT MOSTLY EUROPE. 

WE [THE WEST] HAVE TO STOP PRETENDING THAT RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE ENEMIES.

GUS LEONISKY.

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT (WW3) HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA TO BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

RESTORE THE RIGHTS OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING PEOPLE OF "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

RESTITUTE THE ORTHODOX CHURCH PROPERTIES AND RIGHTS

RELEASE THE OPPOSITION MEMBERS FROM PRISON

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EU.....

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 THE NUMBERS IN THE TOON AT TOP ARE APPROXIMATED BY THE LAWS OF PROBABILITIES CALCULATED ON A SLIDE-RULE (FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW A SLIDE RULE SEE: https://amenzwa.github.io/stem/ComputingHistory/HowSlideRulesWork/)

The survival of our species owes much to our brain, specifically, its ability to observe, analyse, and plan. Planting crops and storing grains for the winter were some of the earliest uses of these abilities. Measuring and calculating are foundational elements of observation, analysis, and planning. Computation, upon which our modern society depends, is but an extension of those ancient measurement and calculation techniques.

Calculations operate on operands obtained through measurements. Counting was the oldest form of measurement. In prehistory, humans counted by scratching marks on bones. Next to evolve was a ruler etched with markings. Thereafter, humans were marking, measuring, calculating, tracking, and predicting the movements of the Sun and the Moon using stone pillars, astronomically aligned burial mounds, and sun dials.

By around 3000 BC, Sumerians invented the sexagesimal (base-60">60) number system, and they were using the abacus by 2700 BC. The abacus was one of the earliest devices that mechanised calculations, and it is still in extensive use, throughout the world. A cuneiform clay tablet from 1800 BC shows that Babylonians already knew how to survey land boundaries with the aid of Pythagorean triples. Egyptians improved upon these techniques to survey property boundaries on the Nile flood planes and to erect the pyramids. By 220 BC, Persian astronomers were using the astrolabe to calculate the latitude, to measure the height of objects, and to triangulate positions. Greeks constructed truly advanced mechanical instruments that predicted solar and lunar eclipses. The sophistication and refinement exhibited by the Antikythera mechanismfrom around 200 BC continues to amaze modern engineers.

Ancient astronomy measured, tracked, and predicted the movements of heavenly objects. But when celestial navigation came to be used extensively in global trade across the oceans, we began charting the night sky in earnest, and thus was born modern astronomy. Astronomical calculations involved manually manipulating numbers. Those calculations were tedious and error prone.

In 1614, a brilliant Scottish mathematician John Napier discovered logarithms. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say Napier invented logarithms, for his discovery was motivated by his desire to simplify multiplication and division. Arithmetically, multiplication can be expressed as repeated additions, and division as repeated subtractions. Logarithmically, multiplication of two numbers can be reduced to addition of their logarithms, and division to subtraction thereof. Hence, multiplication and division of very large numbers can be reduced to straightforward addition and subtraction, with the aid of prepared logarithm and inverse logarithm tables.

In 1620, Edmund Gunter, an English astronomer, used Napier’s logarithms to fashion a calculating device that came to be known as Gunter’s scale. The markings on this device were not linear like a simple ruler, but logarithmic. To multiply two numbers, the length representing the multiplicand is first marked out on the logarithmic scale using a divider and, from thence, the length representing the multiplier is similarly marked out, thereby obtaining the product, which is the sum of the two logarithmic lengths. Gunter’s scale mechanised the tedious task of looking up numbers on logarithm tables. This device was the forerunner of the slide rule.

The first practical slide rule was invented by William Oughtred, an English mathematician, in 1622. Oughtred used two bits of wood graduated with Gunter’s scale to perform multiplication and addition. Then, in 1630, Oughtred fashioned a brass circular slide rule with two integrated pointers. This device was a significant improvement over Gunter’s scale, in terms of practicality and usability. 

The earliest adopters of the slide rule were the 17th century astronomers, who used it to perform arithmetic and trigonometric operations, quickly. But it was the 19th century engineers, the spearheads of the Industrial Revolution, who propelled the slide rule technology forward. For nearly four centuries after its invention, the slide rule remained the preeminent calculating device. Buildings, bridges, machines, and even computer system components, were designed by slide rule. Apollo astronauts carried the Pickett N600-ES pocket slide rule, onboard, for navigation and propulsion calculations. The General Dynamics F-16, a modern, air-superiority fighter, was designed by slide rule. Well into the late 1970s, school children all over the world, including me, were taught to use the slide rule and the logarithm book, along with penmanship and grammar.

The largest and most enthusiastic group of slide rule users, naturally, were engineers. But slide rules were used in all areas of human endeavour that required calculation: business, construction, manufacturing, medicine, photography, and more. Obviously, bankers and accountants relied on the slide rule to perform sundry arithmetic gymnastics. Construction sites and factory floors, too, used specialised versions of slide rules for mixing concrete, computing volumes, etc. Surveyors used the stadia slide rule made specifically for them. Doctors use special, medical slide rules for calculating all manner of things: body mass index, pregnancy terms, medicine dosage, and the like. Photographers used photometric slide rules for calculating film development times. Army officers used artillery slide rules to compute firing solutions in the field. Pilots used aviation slide rules for navigation and fuel-burn calculations. The list was long. This humble device elevated the 18th century astronomy, powered the 19th century Industrial Revolution, and seeded the 20th century Technological Revolution. Indeed, the slide rule perfectly expressed the engineering design philosophy: capability through simplicity.

But then, in 1972, HP released its first pocket scientific calculator, the inimitable HP-35. The HP-35 rang loud the death knell of the slide rule. Although electronic pocket calculators were unaffordable in the early 1970s, they became ubiquitous within a decade thanks to Moore’s law and Dennard’s law, and quickly displaced the slide rule. By the early 1980s, only a few people in the world were using the slide rule.