Wednesday 8 June 2016

The Theory that Would Not Die (2011) by Sheila McGrayne


  • p.67. He named his unit a ban for Banburismus and defined it as “about the smallest change in weight of evidence that is directly perceptible to human intuition.

    No, it was the deciban - one-tenth as much. IJ Good, Turing's assistant:
    A deciban or half-deciban is about the smallest change in weight of evidence that is directly perceptible to human intuition.




The Victorians (2002) by AN Wilson


  • p.282. "John Ruskin did not go to school. Nor did... George Eliot..."

    George Eliot was educated in a series of girls' schools from the ages of 5 to 16. (See any biography, for instance, or indeed her letters.)