vivaldi's New Writeups

Esso (thing)

2006-02-12T07:52:57Z

In 1911, the United States Supreme Court broke up The Standard Oil Company into 34 separate companies as part of an antitrust lawsuit. Each of these 34 companies were allowed to retain the name of Standard Oil, provided that each of these companies only used the name in their designated geographic region.

One of the 34 companies was called Standard Oil (New Jersey), which chose to call itself Esso, because it was the phonetic spelling for the letters "S.O.", which stood for "Standard Oil".

So Esso was the oil and gas company that was allowed to sell its products in the New Jersey area using the emblems, name, and initials of its former parent, Standard Oil. In 1966, Esso decided that it wanted to market its oil and gas products throughout the United States, but in order to do so they would be required by the previous Supreme Court decision to abandon any use of the Standard Oil trademarks, including the use of its initials in the phonetic "Esso". Thus, a new name…

Oxford Capacity Analysis (thing)

2005-08-06T08:11:18Z

Abstract

The Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA) is a personality test that is given out for free by the Church of Scientology. Both the terms "Oxford Capacity Analysis" and "(OCA)" are registered trademarks belonging to the Religious Technology Center, which is the head group of the Church of Scientology, since it controls all the trademarks and copyrights to all the scripture. The OCA test is offered by the Church of Scientology online, at its local churches, and sometimes at local fairs, carnivals, and other public events. This test was created by psychologist Julia Lewis. The Church of Scientology adapted her original test and originally called it the American Personality Analysis. It was later changed to Oxford Capacity Analysis. Since the University of Oxford has nothing to do with this test, it is speculated the name change was only made to give it the appearance of credibility. The OCA has been used as a recruiting tool by the Church of…

haven't (idea)

2005-06-03T21:36:03Z

a verb. Contraction for have not. Usage example: I haven't taken a shower today.

Annals of Congress (thing)

2005-05-25T02:12:53Z

THE

DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS

IN THE

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES;

WITH

AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

IMPORTANT STATE PAPERS AND PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

AND ALL

THE LAWS OF A PUBLIC NATURE

WITH A COPIOUS INDEX.

VOLUME I,

COMPRISING (WITH VOLUME II) THE PERIOD FROM MARCH 3, 1789, TO MARCH 3, 1791, INCLUSIVE.

COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

…

ramp function (thing)

2005-05-24T17:03:51Z

The use of the ramp function is quite handy when dealing with many engineering systems, particularly when dealing with vibrations and control systems found in mechanical engineering. There are many other uses for ramp functions in other disciplines, especially electrical engineering, that I'm not very familiar with. I'm sure that mathematicians have also found many uses for them as well, because I'm pretty sure my differential equations and linear algebra professors blathered on about them while I was napping in their lectures. An explanation follows:

If we say that the Heaviside Function (aka step function) is:

     f(t) = u(t-a) = { 1 for t > a   (a >= 0) }
                     { 0 for t < a            }

then the graph of f(t) looks like:

            f
            ^
            |
           1+     +---------
            |     |
            |     |
     -------0-----+-------->t
            |     a

…

5th United States Congress (thing)

2005-05-24T08:40:57Z

5th CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (1797-1799)

Lasted from May 15, 1797 to March 3, 1799

Comprised of three sessions of Congress:

First Session: May 15, 1797 to July 10, 1797 (57 days, held in Philadelphia)
Second Session: November 13, 1797 to July 16, 1798 (246 days, held in Philadelphia)
Third Session: December 3, 1798 to March 3, 1799 (91 days, held in Philadelphia)

Congressional Profile:

Total House Membership: 106 Representatives
House Party Divisions: 57 Federalists, 49 Jeffersonian Republicans

Speakers of the House:

Clerk of the House:

Jonathan W. Condy

Doorkeeper:

Thomas Claxton

Sergeant at Arms:…