Medieval Times

We sallied forth to Medieval Times this evening, and were duly apportioned to quaff our meals whilst championing the blue knight (Don Alberto del Mau).

Later in the evening, he was hit with a sword to the gut. Yowch. This must have hurt less than his overly expressive body language suggested, since a mere 10 minutes later, he was up on his horse again and waving his blue flag.

V. took photos of the fracas.

This post's theme word: mortmain, "the often stifling influence of the past on the present and the living," or "the perpetual ownership of property by institutions such as churches."

Building Turing machines

Two recent items of internews (internet+news = stories that are popular for a few hours) regarding Turing machines, my second-favorite type of machine.*

Massive in-game Turing machine built inside a mechanical game (via BoingBoing).

Actual real-life Turing machine built inside this universe (via BoingBoing, HackADay, Slashdot, Gizmodo).


This post's theme word: sedulous, "involving great care, effort, and persistence." Any Turing machine construction, whether engineering or mathematical, is of necessity quite sedulous.

*Printing presses. Nothing can beat 'em.