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blinry

I'm in Oxford! Sandstone buildings, bars, and bookshops!

I did this "self-guided tour for new and prospective students", and enjoyed it a lot! It's very well-produced, and playing audio based on my location worked quite well.
ox.ac.uk/students/new/knowyour

A sandstone building – it's the exam building of Oxford University!
A circular sandstone building. It's a library for old English books.
A cluster of sandstone buildings. It's some college, I think?
A shopping steet with cute shops.
26 May 2024 at 19:36 | Open on chaos.social
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blinry replied to blinry

And look who I met! @katzazi and @leyrer! Everyone's gravitating towards #emf2024! :D

Three white people smile into the camera. One with red beard, one with grey beard, one with no beard.
26 May 2024 at 19:40 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

I also visited University of Oxford's Museum of Science, which showcases a lot of scientific instruments, including some super pretty and old astrolabes!

The museum didn't do a good of explaining how to use them, though. Need to look into that later tonight, maybe! :)

A circular slide rule.
A blackboard used by Einstein.
Three astrolabes.
A 3D model hinting at a molecule structure.
26 May 2024 at 19:46 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

Isn't it weird that humans and bananas *ever* shared a common ancestor?!

A model of a banana. According to the description, the last xommon ancestor shared with humans lived 1.6 billion years ago.
A diagram showing ancestry relastionships of all lifeforms.
27 May 2024 at 10:39 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

Had a brilliant day in Oxford!

Visited Blackwell's Bookshop! <3 They have a giant underground room with cozy lighting, and staff that radiates their love of books!

A big room full of bookshelves and stairs.
27 May 2024 at 21:56 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

Saw a dodo skeleton at the Natural History Museum!

Photo of the aforementioned dodo skeleton.
27 May 2024 at 21:58 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

Found the Penrose Paving at the Mathematical Institute!

Also learned that they published most of their undergraduate lectures on YouTube: maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67930

I kneel on outside paving with stones shaped like kites and diamonds.
27 May 2024 at 22:01 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

I really enjoyed my stay in Oxford, glad I came here! Such a cool and interesting place!

Tomorrow, I'll head to my final in-between stop before I go to #emf2024!

Oxford from above. There'a a protest camp in front of a round building.
My shadow falling down a flight of stairs.
Another college from above.
A water-spewing demon on a chiech spire.
27 May 2024 at 22:10 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry
blinry replied to blinry

I'm in Bletchley! :) Was greeted by a cat committee.

Me smiling in front of Bletchley station.
Cat 1
Cat 2
28 May 2024 at 18:17 | Open on chaos.social
blinry replied to blinry

Visited the National Museum of Computing today. I've been to plenty of computer museums – but this one is special: Almost everything works!

You can type on an Enigma, and then see how a bombe helped decipher it. It's *loud*!!

They also have a computer from 1951, the "Witch", which still works! It had 340 bytes of RAM, could calculate five values per second, and punch them out on paper tape!

I'm typing on a typewriter-like device.
A man stands in front of a big device with many rotating wheels.
A computer as big as three big wardrobes, with many vacuum tubes.
Paper tape with punched-out holes on wheels.
28 May 2024 at 18:32 | Open on chaos.social
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