Jefferson: Hey, remember that time you dared me to start a two-party system?
Washington: No, I said, “Jefferson, don’t start a two-party system,” and you said, “Don’t tell me what to do, Washington.” And then you started a two-party system.
Until 1890, the minority party in the U.S. House of Representatives could block a vote by “disappearing.” A minority party member would demand a roll call, all the minority party members would remain silent when their name was called, and then the minority party would declare that too few members were “present” for the House to conduct its business. To incoming Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Reed, who was the head of the majority party, this was a “tyranny of the minority.“ Within the first month of his term, on January 28th, he resolved to break it. When Democrats demanded a roll call and refused to answer to their names, Reed marked them present anyway. When Kentucky representative James B. McCreary objected, Reed said sweetly, “The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?”
There followed a sort of ontological shooting gallery. Democrats hid under their desks and behind screens to avoid being observed to exist. When they tried to flee the chamber entirely, Reed ordered the doors locked, which started a scramble to get out before the next vote. Representative Kilgore of Texas had to kick open a locked door to escape. Amid the howled objections, Confederate general “Fighting Joe” Wheeler came down from the rear “leaping from desk to desk as an ibex leaps from crag to crag,” and one unnamed Texas Democrat “sat in his seat significantly whetting a bowie knife on his boot.” Finally the Republicans mustered a majority even with the Democrats entirely absent, and the battle was over: Reed’s new rules were adopted on February 14.
It may sound like science fiction, but researchers at the Salk Institute and UC San Diego may have found a way to control the billions of neurons in our brain using ultrasound.
Through this approach called sonogenetics, they were able to activate specific brain cells in roundworms and influence their movements.
The ability to manipulate neurons can give us more insight on brain circuits that may be associated with certain neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, according to Sreekanth Chalasani, senior author of the study.
Since ultrasonic waves can penetrate into deeper regions of the brain without disturbing other tissues and doesn’t require surgical implants, the procedure could help develop new and less invasive treatments for diseases.
And there’s also the potential that sonogenetics may be used to control other types of cells in the body, says Chalasani.
Thus far the technique has only been tested on animals, so researchers first need to develop safe ways to deliver ultrasound-sensitive channels to target cells in order for the technique to be used in humans.
The Float Table is a matrix of “magnetized” wooden cubes that levitate with respect to one another. The repelling cubes are held in equilibrium by a system of tensile steel cables.
It’s classical physics applied to modern design. Each handcrafted table is precisely tuned to seem rigid and stable, yet a touch reveals the secret to Float’s dynamic character.
wait is 5! = 120 an actual math thing i just reblogged it bc i sincerely believe that yelling a number makes it bigger
An exclamation point after a number means factorial. Five factorial is 5 times 4 times 3 times 2 times 1. Three factorial is 3 times 2 times 1, etc.
But the more exclamation points after a number, the less big it is, a double factorial is every other number, so 6!! is 6 times 4 times 2, which is less than 6!, So yelling a number makes it bigger, but yelling louder makes it smaller again
A Middleground 