the entropy liberation front

Boing Boing linked to some articles about the original book of magic tricks, Hocus Pocus Junior, (1634). Hocus Pocus Junior was actually a remix of parts of Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), published 50 years earlier to debunk all sorts of magic.

The Discouerie of Witchcraft is available in a beautifully scanned copy of an 1886 reprint.

Years ago I conceived a desire to read Hamilton's Elements of Quaternions. This was part of my independent study of geometric algebras inspired by working on molecular dynamics and reading David Hestenes. There's a geometric algebra desk calculator lurking around here somewhere, desperately in need of a rework which I promise should happen real soon now.

But back to this craving to read Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the original. Reading the original works of scientists is unfashionable.