April Fool’s Day open thread
March 31st, 2007 at 6:13 pm . by el nuko
The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the ‘Biblical value’ of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.
Comment posted by SwampWoman
at 4/2/2007 9:14:39 AM
Well, nobody wins them all.
I just de-molded one of the tiles that I made yesterday with an embedded cardbord cut out laminated heart that was sprinkled with red pigment. It came out surprisingly well, although some of the pigment did splatter around it in a halo effect which looks reminiscent of a crime scene. That’s okay, the laminated heart will go back into the recess in a couple of weeks and the rest of the tile will be acid-stained a nice aqua blue color (SwampMan got me a present this weekend, a couple of gallons of acid stain.)
I wanted to embed the hearts into a planter, but I need a better fixation method. The fixation method needs to be just sturdy enough to hold while the concrete is being molded, yet not so sturdy that it keeps the concrete mixture from de-molding or adds any bulk. I’ll try some double-sided tape.
I’m actually planning to embed pennies around the outside top of a planter. I’ll glue them to a fiberglass mesh backing first so that they’ll be equidistant.
Comment posted by no2liberals
at 4/1/2007 9:13:59 PM
Dang!
LSU’s Lady Tigers got whomped tonight. Still proud of them, though.
Comment posted by nuke
at 4/1/2007 3:12:18 PM
Swamps — take one of your new tiles and superglue some spare change on it. You’ll get the last laugh when you watch the freeloaders try to grab the coins. Heh
Comment posted by no2liberals
at 4/1/2007 2:53:43 PM
Swampie got hosed hoaxed!
Comment posted by SwampWoman
at 4/1/2007 2:48:25 PM
I’ve received so many orders for planters and (concrete) tiles for me to do in my “spare time” which is very, very spare indeed that I am completely flummoxed. As they are all from friends and relatives that have seen the ones that I am making for myself, it isn’t even a paying proposition, but they will be paying for the materials at least and give me the chance to indulge a (new) hobby. (Although I have no doubt that I will be wincing at the evidence of the crudeness of my first efforts shortly.)
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