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With another solstice safely out of the way we can turn to the next big thing—no, not Saturnalia, but rather the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton.
$ echo $((2023-1642))
381
$ bits 381
101111101
The above calculation is in error, even if the bits are perfectly palindromic; the calendar system changed from Julian (Newton born in 1642) to Gregorian (Newton born in 1643) sometime over the course of 1582 to 1923.
Anyways, Newton is by some held as the very model of a modern major scientist, which is true if only you ignore the woo: Newton was "the last of the magicians" according to John Maynard Keynes. Is alchemy something you can put on your résumé? I suppose this depends on the job, but serious corporations doing serious business these days would raise at least an eyebrow, if not red flags—"bad culture fit", "dubious adherence to the one true Teleology", etc.
Some things do change.
Newton lost something like £4.4 million in a bitcoin scam, err, I mean, the South Sea Company bubble. Also alchemy was becoming frowned on in his day because various individuals had been over-promising alchemy to (now somewhat less) rich benefactors. Theranos, much?
Some things never change.
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