Pre-decimal Machins

Just been mounting the set of 1967 Machins I got for Christmas... so nice to have the values that I've never seen before. The golden brown ½d, the beautiful powder-blue 8d (I'm guessing this replaced the red 8d after the red version of the 5d came out) and the green 9d.

Secondlife

Persistently orange-clouded? With the Developer menu enabled, and the Debug console selected, you may see useful messages that will explain that 'self is clouded' due to missing (unworn) items, eg SHAPE or EYES.

Smallpox

Right, so although Janet Parker had been vaccinated against smallpox in 1966, she was infected in the Birmingham University outbreak of 1978 because the vaccination is only good for about 10 years.

By the way, kudos to the unnamed doctor called by Ms Parker's parents, who on August 24 1978 realised that she was suffering from smallpox even though it was a very unlikely diagnosis at that point in time, the last British outbreak having been in 1966. (I'd like to know a bit more about this previous outbreak - the writer of this article seems to know more than he's saying).

By the way, don't do an image search for 'smallpox lesions'. Though if you do, it will teach you why so much effort was put into eradicating the disease. (Though the US have nobly retained their stocks, for research and definitely not for use against 'enemies of freedom', that is right out, they deny that absolutely.)

Colon classification

Empty, emptying etc

Empty digit

An empty digit (Z, 0, 9) is effectively not there. The leading 9s in the octave device (7, 8, 91, 92 etc) are empty digits. It is as if 91 and 92 are new single digits that follow 8.

Emptying digit

An emptying digit (T, V, X) nullifies the semantic value of the preceding digit, but not its ordinal value. So in the sequence K, KX, L the X causes KX to sort after K, but not to be a subcategory of K. KX here is co-ordinate with K and L just as M is - it's as if KX is a new single digit that comes between K and L. NB that when these digits are initial digits, they don't have any emptying effect (because there is no preceding digit!)

Empty-emptying digit

An empty-emptying digit (U, W, Y) combines both roles. It enables infinite interpolation between any two digits, eg

L Medicine
LX Pharmacognosy
LY1 Nursing
LY7 Anaesthiology
M Useful arts

Without empty-emptying digits, we would only be able to interpolate 3 times between L and M (LT, LV, LX).

If there was an LX1 in the above list, it would be a subcategory of LX. LY1 and LY7 however are not subcategories of LY, because a number LY cannot exist, just like a number 9 cannot exist with the octave device. Again, it's as if LY1 and LY7 are new single digits that come between LX and M.

(I think of empty-emptying digits as having 'zero width' or being 'control characters' - they aren't actually in the final output, they just indicate how the other characters are to be interpreted).

Partial comprehension

Better thought of as agglomeration - I think 'partial' here is meant to be read as 'of parts', ie 'comprehension of parts'.

Is done with Z as a contextual emptying digit (normally it's just an empty digit) and * as an anteriorising digit (to make Z sort before 'no digit').

16 Upper extremity
17*Z Head and neck
17 Neck
18 Head