More than seventeen centuries before Europe decided to not burn people at the stake for claiming the Earth was (a) not stationary (b) not the center of the universe and (c) spinning madly as it revolves around the sun, the Greeks were making some impressive strides in astronomy, mathematics, and geometry.

For instance: wacky gods they would offend if they didn’t rub the fat of a newly-slain calf on a stone altar. (Hint: none!) But regarding the size of the earth, some of these dudes were way off. E-dawg was off by less than a few hundred miles.

He measured the length of a shadow at (what he thought was) the equator on the solstice at noon, and then compared it to a shadow being cast by the same sized object in a city that (he thought) was due north by a few miles. He fudged the numbers a little (the Greeks, after the Babylonians, loved things divisible by 60), and came up with 24,663 miles.

Note, however that Aristarchus was the guy that came up with the heliocentric bit. It turns out that absolutely no one bought into his idea, but Copernicus (1,900 years later) was supposed to have been somewhat reassured that he wasn’t completely alone and nutty. And the first action thing is a joke about Aristotle. Yes, the whole purpose of this post was to make jokes about Ancient Greek philosophers.

Small-town boy plays guitar in a rock and roll band, but his father doesn’t understand. It sounds like a Chuck Berry song. Probably because it’s at least a dozen Chuck Berry songs. But this is no ordinary song tale of Americana. This is a story about Shillong, India.

“Me, I started playing guitar in church,” Mr. Ryntathiang said. “Three chords. I was in [Grade] 7. My father didn’t encourage me. He said it’s going to get you nowhere.” His father, it turned out, had a band of his own and for a while sang Elvis covers.

From the New York Times and their brilliant article on people half a world away enjoying the kind of music that any rebellious teen gets hooked on. And really, isn’t 61 like 17 in Former British Colony Years?

I’m still working on that first year of law school. As a result, Twelve Sided Die (1d12) is on hiatus for a couple more months. This site will remain a place where I engage in disquisitions of general geekery and mocking of the news.

After exams, I’ll start a site for legal analysis and discussion of the law from the eyes of someone with the barest glimmer of insight, as inspired by Over My Med Body, only for the legal field. (Seriously, he has a lot of insight. Read his site.) It will be entertaining, I assure you.