#The Acquired Savant

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

A Brain Injury turned him into a Math Genius

Jason Padgett had dropped out of Tacoma (Wash.) Community College, and was a self-described “goof” with zero interest in academics, let alone math. The only time he dealt in numbers was to track the hours until his shift ended at his father’s furniture store, tally up his bar tab, or count bicep curls at the gym.

With his mullet, leather vest open to a bare chest, and skintight pants, he was more like a high-school student stuck in the 1980s — even though it was 2002, and he was a 31-year-old with a daughter. He would race his buddies in a freshly painted red Camaro. His life was one adrenaline rush after another: cliff-jumping, sky-diving, bar-hopping. He was the “life of the party.” The guy who would funnel a beer before going out and would slip a bottle of Southern Comfort in his jacket pocket to avoid paying $6 for mixed drinks.

Party time came to end the night of Friday, Sept. 13, 2002, at a karaoke bar near his home. There, two men attacked him from behind, punching him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. He fell to the ground as the two men punched and kicked him, stopping only when he handed over his worthless jacket. He was rushed to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed a bruised kidney. He was released that same night.

The next morning, while running the water in the bathroom, he noticed “lines emanating out perpendicularly from the flow. At first, he was startled, and worried. Days went by, but the visuals remained. Padgett, who had scored relatively high on IQ tests in elementary school but reached only pre-algebra in high school, soon became “obsessed with every shape in my house, from rectangles of the windows to the curvature of a spoon.” When he looked at numbers, colorful shapes superimposed over them. He stopped going to work and began to read anything he could get his hands on about math and physics. He developed a fascination with fractals and pi.

The doctors called what happened to him a “profound concussion.” Little did they know just how profound it was. Padgett is one of only 40 people in the world with “acquired ­savant syndrome,” a condition in which prodigious talents in math, art or music emerge in previously normal individuals following a brain injury or disease.

There were downsides that came along with the new Padgett. Once gregarious and outgoing, he now refused to leave the house. He nailed blankets to the window and refused visitors. He became obsessed with germs and washed his hands until they were red and raw. He couldn’t even hug his own daughter until she washed her hands. He began to fear that this wasn’t a gift at all — that it all was a sign of mental illness.

Padgett reached out to Wisconsin psychiatrist Dr. Darold Treffert, the world-recognized expert on savantism who had studied Kim Peek.  Via e-mail — and later in person — Treffert diagnosed Padgett with acquired savant syndrome, one of only 30 people identified at the time.  Padgett wasn’t alone, and this comforted him. He tore the blankets off the windows and enrolled in a local community college. 

He is now an author, artist and mathematician. 

[dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd]

A Brain Injury turned him into a Math Genius

Jason Padgett had dropped out of Tacoma (Wash.) Community College, and was a self-described “goof” with zero interest in academics, let alone math. The only time he dealt in numbers was to track the hours until his shift ended at his father’s furniture store, tally up his bar tab, or count bicep curls at the gym.

With his mullet, leather vest open to a bare chest, and skintight pants, he was more like a high-school student stuck in the 1980s — even though it was 2002, and he was a 31-year-old with a daughter. He would race his buddies in a freshly painted red Camaro. His life was one adrenaline rush after another: cliff-jumping, sky-diving, bar-hopping. He was the “life of the party.” The guy who would funnel a beer before going out and would slip a bottle of Southern Comfort in his jacket pocket to avoid paying $6 for mixed drinks.

Party time came to end the night of Friday, Sept. 13, 2002, at a karaoke bar near his home. There, two men attacked him from behind, punching him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. He fell to the ground as the two men punched and kicked him, stopping only when he handed over his worthless jacket. He was rushed to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed a bruised kidney. He was released that same night.

The next morning, while running the water in the bathroom, he noticed “lines emanating out perpendicularly from the flow. At first, he was startled, and worried. Days went by, but the visuals remained. Padgett, who had scored relatively high on IQ tests in elementary school but reached only pre-algebra in high school, soon became “obsessed with every shape in my house, from rectangles of the windows to the curvature of a spoon.” When he looked at numbers, colorful shapes superimposed over them. He stopped going to work and began to read anything he could get his hands on about math and physics. He developed a fascination with fractals and pi.

The doctors called what happened to him a “profound concussion.” Little did they know just how profound it was. Padgett is one of only 40 people in the world with “acquired ­savant syndrome,” a condition in which prodigious talents in math, art or music emerge in previously normal individuals following a brain injury or disease.

There were downsides that came along with the new Padgett. Once gregarious and outgoing, he now refused to leave the house. He nailed blankets to the window and refused visitors. He became obsessed with germs and washed his hands until they were red and raw. He couldn’t even hug his own daughter until she washed her hands. He began to fear that this wasn’t a gift at all — that it all was a sign of mental illness.

Padgett reached out to Wisconsin psychiatrist Dr. Darold Treffert, the world-recognized expert on savantism who had studied Kim Peek.  Via e-mail — and later in person — Treffert diagnosed Padgett with acquired savant syndrome, one of only 30 people identified at the time.  Padgett wasn’t alone, and this comforted him. He tore the blankets off the windows and enrolled in a local community college. 

He is now an author, artist and mathematician. 

[postersbykeith]

[jess-themess05]

Idea 16: Vanessa knows how to sew

You know, at this point my nickname should be Afton. Cause I always come back!

 

… 

*cough*

 uh moving swiftly on

 

This new idea/concept is probably my longest yet, I couldn't help but do my usual thing of trying to explain everything. I will also say that this one might not be “as good” as my other ideas so be warned. With that out of the way, grab yourself a snack/drink and strap in!

Once again, we must set the scene. Life has returned to normal for our faz fam, or at least as normal as it can be for a family consisting of mostly robots. Silver Parasol was able to find an abandoned restaurant and purchase it to give the bots a place to live. It took a bit to get used to its smaller area ( It is about the size of your average chucky cheese) but animatronics have acclimated well. The restaurant still has a lot of the same activities as the pizza plex once did, they are just a lot smaller. In some cases, such as with Monty's golf course and Roxy’s raceway, they’ve been replaced with miniature versions like mini golf and RC car racing respectively. There are a few new activities as well though such as “Chica’s cooking class'' and “Painting with Sun and Moon”. Roxy and Monty also hold “weekly challenges” and I will let you figure out what that means. (Some of you came up with some really clever ideas the last time I did this :) )

 

As for our human friends, they are doing quite well! Gregory has been doing well at school and has gotten his own little group of friends. He has developed a reputation at the school for being the kind of kid who causes trouble. Not anything bad of course, he still gets amazing grades but has from time to time crested harmless pranks that everyone finds quite amusing. Vanessa has being doing good as well. She got a promotion at work due to how high quality her work has been and she has gone on several more successful dates with Luis and are "officially" a couple. (Everyone is happy for her, though Gregory still takes some slight joy at how flustered Vanessa gets whenever he asks about their dates. Once a gremlin always a gremlin)

 

Now, something that is important to mention is how Vanessa has been dealing with the memories of being under mind control. It isn’t just her memories; these also include all of Vanny’s memories. (While under mind control Vanessa didn’t see everything that Vanny saw or did. Vanny would only have her be aware of what was going on when SHE wanted Vanessa to see something, which normally meant murders ). Allow me to attempt and explain.

(if you don’t want to read all this, scroll until you see the asterisk*) 

When Vanessa was first freed she tried to just not think about her memories of that time and tried to live in the present. This proved to be a bad idea since the events of idea 10 kept happening. What I mean by this is that Vanessa would see something in the present that felt vaguely familiar, such as a child alone in the pizzaplex, and it would trigger one of Vanny’s memories. From there, Vanessa would be forced to watch the memory play out, which usually consisted of a child being murdered. Then she would come out of the memory in the midst of a panic attack. After a few months of this, she realized that this wasn’t the way to go about this. So, after the events of idea 12, she decides to try dealing with these bad memories in a different way. Her new method is to, just, think about them. Get used to the fact that they exist so she doesn't get overwhelmed by them when she sees something familiar. They are still bad, and she will never not feel guilty about the actions that take place in them, but it does help reduce the amount of pain that they cause to a point that she can live with them.

 

Through this methodic remembering Vanessa discovers that she also has access to Vanny’s memories that, other than having very bad implications, aren't really that bad. One of these series of memories is of Vanny creating that suit she wore  (btw it has long since been burned, it was one of the first things that the Faz fam did together after “that night”) As such one of the skills Vanessa now has is sewing. She had known Vanny could sow for a while now, she had found a sewing kit in her room after she was freed and easily figured out the connection. Up until now though Vanessa herself hadn't attempted to use it since she didn't remember how to. Even though she now knows how to sew, she hasn’t used this skill for 2 main reasons. Firstly, it reminds her of Vanny, though this reasoning has been getting a lot less strong as time goes on; and secondly, she hasn’t had much of a reason to use this skill at all… until now.

 

*TLDR Vanessa basically got Acquired Savant Syndrome , without the necessary physical head trauma.

 

The situation arises on a normal day while Gregory was at school hanging out with his friends. They decide to challenge him to a contest during recess, who can climb a tree to a certain branch the fastest. Gregory, being… well Gregory, immediately accepts (it would seem Roxy and Monty have been rubbing off on him) and is off to the tallest tree in the yard before they even decide on a prize. He climbs the tree and reaches the lowest main branch in around 15 seconds, much to the amazement of the children in the yard. 

 

However, in their collective excitement, the children failed to notice that the branch  Gregory is standing on has rotten and died. So after a few seconds, it breaks under the load  and Gregory begins falling to the ground. Thankfully his shirt manages to catch one of the smaller branches, slowing his fall but ripping his shirt in the process. He lands on the ground and, aside from some small cuts and bruises, is completely fine. The same cannot be said for his shirt though, the branch has made a tear from the bottom to the arm sleeve.

 

It should be stated that this particular shirt means a lot to him, it is one of the last possessions that he has from his old life, the one where his mother was still alive. The reason he knows this goes back several months, back to just a few days after “that night.” One of the first things that Vanessa and Gregory had done together was try and find his old house. They had done this to see if anything was still there and, if there was, take it back to Vanessa’s apartment so that Gregory would feel more “at home”.  

 

The 2 of them had found that the house had been claimed by the city since the owner, Gregory’s mother, had been found dead and she had had no living adult relatives. All of the possessions that were inside the house had been sold or given to charity in accordance with Utah state law . In a nutshell, all Gregory has from his old life are memories and the clothes he was wearing. It might seem kind of silly to a stranger, but the Faz fam knows how important it is to him. Besides, people tend to form emotional attachment to inanimate objects in real life (especially after traumatic events), so I think this might be plausible.

 

 Anyways, after picking himself off of the ground and reassuring the others that he is all fine, Gregory looks down at his special shirt and realizes that it is ruined and he thinks that Vanessa will likely have to throw it away. He really doesn’t want this to happen due to how much the shirt means to him, so he decides to try and repair it. After recess ends he grabs some duct tape, goes into a bathroom and tapes up the shirt. He hopes that the temporary repair will fool Vanessa long enough for him to try and find a more permanent fix for his shirt.

 

Vanessa isn’t home yet as she had to work late that day. (The company is planning on pushing out a new DLC that is based on the new restaurant the PizzaPlex animatronics now occupy as a way to advertise the place. So everyone is working a bit harder to get the update ready for release.) Gregory is about to take advantage of this and toss his ruined shirt into his room and put on a new one when he notices Freddy watching him, in his plush form. Freddy asks what he is doing, which means that Gregory has to explain the situation to him. He is just finishing up his explanation when he hears the door unlock, Vanessa has already returned from work. 

 

She enters and is in the middle of asking how his day was when she turns to look at him. She stops speaking, seeing him covered in scrapes and bruises and wearing a torn shirt. Vanessa, trying to remain calm and not get TOO worried, asks what happened to him. Before Gregory can even attempt to craft a response that downplays what actually happened, Freddy answers with “Gregory fell from a tree!” in a tone of voice that sounds like he is discussing the weather.

 

For several seconds nothing happens, then Vanessa fully processes what Freddy has just told her and launches into “doting parent” mode. She kneels down to Gregory and starts checking him over whilst asking him multiple questions about his well being. Gregory manages to calm Vanessa down after reassuring her that he is fine. Now a lot calmer, Vanessa notices that his shirt is ripped and the duct tape on it, prompting her to ask him what he planned to do with it. Gregory defeatedly tells her that he was going to try and fix it.

 

Vanessa remains silent, thinking. She knows how much this shirt means to him, and doesn’t want to get rid of it or have it not be wearable anymore. She wonders if she might be able to fix it herself, and then remembers that sewing kit and the memories of Vanny making the suit. Vanessa realizes that she might be able to solve this problem. So she asks Gregory if she can try and sew up the shirt for him. Gregory, who was expecting Vanessa to tell him to throw it away, is caught a bit off guard before saying yes.

 

So Vanessa takes the shirt to her room, opens the sewing kit and grabs some blue thread. She hesitates before picking up the actual needle, some of that old fear still lingering despite it being over 7 months since “that night”. Vanessa takes a deep breath and starts fixing the shirt. To her surprise she finds it to be quite easy, like riding a bike after a long break. Within an hour (idk how long this would really take lol) she has already patched up the tear and the shirt looks good as new.

 

She goes over to Gregory’s room and finds him having a conversation with Freddy about discretion “You can’t just bluntly tell people that someone fell out of a tree! You have to give them some sort of warning!” Vanessa gets their attention and shows them the patched shirt. Gregory takes his shirt, looks it over and places it on the bed. He then gives Vanessa a big ol hug while graciously thanking her for fixing it. She tells him that it was no problem, and then asks him how he even climbed the tree in the first place. 

 

That is where I will leave it, I hope you enjoyed this long boi. Again, I admit that this might not be as good as my other ideas, but I really just felt the need to write this one as it has been on my mind for a long time now.

-except with afton people don’t dread your existence!! and also you’re not a lame killer furry :)

i

i don’t think anyway

hi hi :D welcome back!! it is certainly a very long boi and i love it. some more backstory and the present events!!!

ok first thing, i had no idea acquired savant syndrome was a thing. w h a t. you’re sending me cool ideas and making me learn at the same time??? you sneaky mother fucker >:0 that’s so COOL

yknow, vanny being knowledgeable on sewing makes a lot of sense! for one, her actual costume has comically large stitches most likely for fashion purposes, but also... i can’t imagine killing rambunctious children is gonna make for an easy job. most likely ending up with resistance, futile resistance but still a struggle i assume! so repairing said costume is gonna come in handy, bonus points cause it’ll just make more cool patterns on your furry suit! yippee!!

also i really like the idea of vanessa just needing to face her problems head on sometimes, never really good to bottle it up and ignore it huh? with her situation constantly avoiding triggering situations (ex. needing to help a lost child, using a knife, you get the point) once you are unable to avoid the situation it will be much more stressful, so dealing with these in a more controlled environment, and not when you are freaking out, can certainly help!

again i have to point out i just. love how you provide resources for certain things, like here you linked an article about acquired savant syndrome, and also a form about utah state law?? once again, dedication.

i think this prompt is super sweet :] the only thing gregory has of his past life is the literal shirt on his back, and finds comfort in the familiarity of it, so when it rips it’s especially heart breaking. also i still love the idea of freddy basically becoming a fred bear plush that’s- that’s amazing i love it. just this stupid little plush with the deep voice of mister freddy fazbear himself

anyways. vanessa going full doting parents mode is fantastic and i dearly hope to see more of that, especially if freddy is going to be so apathetic about when gregory is harmed in anyway. “Hello Vanessa! How are you? Gregory is in a neck brace and his kneecaps are shattered :)” THATS NOT HOW YOU TELL SOMEONE BAD NEWS. YOU ARE MADE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. THOUGH NOT ENOUGH INTELLIGENCE APPARENTLY. he’s so stupid love that for him.

i’m getting distracted, despite vanessa’s hesitation she still offers to fix his shirt due to his sentimentality with it, like the girl boss she is, especially since she’s dealing with *having to act similarly to your alternative stabby personality* but also dealing with a sharp object, sure it’s not a knife but i could still imagine that being triggering! very proud of her for facing her fears once again, you go bestie, and she gets a hug and a positive reaction from gregory :D that’s a win in my book (maybe going through the traumatic event in the first place and having to heal over said trauma isn’t good but yknow we’re looking at the positives)

thank you once again for sending your thoughts this way!! i look forward to hearing from you again :]

[husband-steve-cortez]

Ezra after he gets a savant omni-tool: Sorry I didn't hear you I was just browsing the extranet on my savant omni-tool

[boredwithmythoughts]

The simplest cure for imposture syndrome I found for the work place (or anything that someone sees you as an expert in really) is to talk to the average person (or the new guy at work) about what it is you feel like an imposture about.

Because hoooohboy, realizing your passive experience is a kicker when you explain why something should be done that you think is common knowledge and everyone looks at you with that blank yet panicked look in their eyes with the thought floating behind them going "how do you KNOW all of this?" And it's like... I thought this was basic knowledge ? But apparently I'm actually knowledgeable at my job?

[it-is-only-a-novel]

Neurodivergent: a list

A list of those who are included under the "neurodivergent" label.

Applied Neurodiversity

Dyscalculia

Dysgraphia

Dyslexia

Dysnomia

Dyspraxia

Dissociative disorders

Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DpDr)

Dissociative amnesia

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD)

Unspecified dissociative disorder

Eating disorders:

Anorexia nervosa

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

Binge-eating disorder

Bullimia nervosa

Pica

Mental illnesses:

Anxiety

Delusional disorder

Depression

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Personality Disorders:

Cluster A:

Paranoid personality disorder

Schizoid personality disorder

Schizotypal personality disorder

Cluster B:

Antisocial personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD)

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

Cluster C:

Avoidant personality disorder

Dependent personality disorder

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Other:

Personality change due to another medical condition

Personality disorder not otherwise specified (PD-NOS)

personality disorder trait specified (PD-TS)

Tic disorder

Chronic motor or vocal tic disorder

Tourette syndrome

Transient tic disorder

other

Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI)

Angelmans Syndrome

Auditory processing disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Body integrity identity disorder (BIID)

Bipolar disorder

Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPDR)

Down syndrome

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

Fragile X syndrome

Hyperlexia

Intellectual disability

Irlen Syndrome

Meares-Irlen Syndrome

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Obsessive love disorder (OLD)

Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS)

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS)

Prosopagnosia

Savant Syndrome

Schizophrenia

Synesthesia

Williams Syndrome/Williams Beuren Syndrome

This is by no means a full list.

If you: see that I'm missing something, or

want me to rephrase something, or

have a resource to share, or

have a suggestion for organizing the list

please let me know in the comments/rebloggs.

I'm autistic and I love making lists. I also hope it may help spread awareness about neurodivergent people!

I am not an expert. But I do believe that we should be careful to include people in the neurodivergent umbrella. We are stronger together.

Updated: 9/2/24

[selarina]

→ Suna Rintaro x Fem!Reader

Summary: When a guy asks for your number, you sternly insist on a condition that leads to unexpected love.

Content Warning: Strangers to Lovers, Fluff, Suggestive, Eventual Smut, Canon-Compliant, Swearing, Social Media AU, Drinking

Taglist: Open

Series Masterlist

Character Profiles

Y/N and Aoba Johsa:

Despite living eons away from each other, they remain as close as they were in their school years.

Y/N is a micro-influencer who occasionally creates YouTube videos, primarily focusing on book reviews and her experiences attending events.

Oikawa has a public account but it's run by his PR team because he fucked up one too many times. Now, he uses his private account to provide unsolicited movie reviews and picks the occasional fights with Y/N.

Iwaizumi and Y/N live in the same area and meet up quite regularly.

Suna and Atsumu:

Suna's sister is a talented amateur musician who sings at various famous bars around town.

This isn't the first time Suna's threatened to kiss people who show up, inadvertently garnering his sister quite a bit of attention.

Atsumu is a social media savant and has honed his skills on Twitter, effortlessly tapping into the art of acquiring clout whenever the need arises.

Atsumu's favorite Spiderman is Andrew Garfield's version since he did grow up on his movies. (Not necessary to the plot but essential to know regardless.)

While the other members of Inarizaki High School's team maintain a close bond, they are not relevant to this story.

TAGLIST: @wolffmaiden @tenaciouswritersheep

[aedesluminis]

Prieur's first work on the metric system

The calling of the Estates Generals and the events that followed shortly after proved to be the perfect occasion for intellectuals, savants and merchants not only to demand, but also to propose new reforms, aimed to obtain a common metric system for the entire realm of France. A system, whose unity and integrity would have prevented any more frauds and mistakes, caused by the incredible diversity of measurement units in use under the Ancien Régime.

Driven by the optimism and the changes brought by the Revolution, and encouraged by his mentor Guyton, the young Claude-Antoine Prieur – at the time still Duvernois – wished to give his contribution to the cause as well. As some notes currently kept at the archives of the Paris Polytechnic School show, Prieur started working on the topic already 1789. In the early days of February 1790, he sent to the National Assembly the result of his efforts: a memoir titled “Mémoire sur la nécessité et les moyens de render uniformes, dans le royaume, toutes les mesures d’étendue et de pesanteur”. (1)

It is a comprehensive work, which distinguishes itself for the detailed implementation of the decimal scale in all measures, except those of time, and the meticulous description of both the theory behind the new proposed units and the methods to craft their respective standards. The memoir also includes a solid set of historical and scientific reference material, on which the theory in based on, and plans to help common people get used to the new system; things that other notable works on the same topic lack. (2)

Below the cut, one can find an English translation I did of the memoir conclusion, which sums up in the shape of decree articles the whole proposal. Notes related to the post and the unit names are added at the end.

I believe to have proved in this memoir the inconveniences of the diversity of measures and the infinite benefits that a law, aimed to make them uniform throughout all the realm, would bring to science, commerce and arts. I committed myself to find the basis, on which these measures should be founded, in order to make their prototypes immutable, and the principles, from which it would be convenient that they are derived. I showed how these measures could easily be adapted to our needs. I indicated the precautions, by which this innovation would cause neither great embarrassments, nor great expenses. According to these principles and to the measures derived from them, I proposed a type of calculation, particularly appropriate to simplify all operations in the fields of business, trade and civil life; that until now has only been used by some savants, but whose knowledge and even habit are easy to acquire. Lastly, the introduction of this calculation and its advantages led me to wish that the name and value of the smallest coin of our currency should be changed to have more accordance between numeration and effective payments.

These are the subjects that I thought deserved to be treated with all the necessary details to prove them. I took advantage of everything that has been written before me on this matter and one might say that I added little of my own. However, it seemed to me that the most desirable way to clarify the opinions [on the matter] was to present in a single work, and by relying on what other famous authors have already proposed, the true principles, their consequences, their applications to all sort of measures of different materials, the means relative to the execution of the project, the precautions to take in order to maintain its integrity, the education to spread so that the people can promptly enjoy the benefits of an enlightened legislation and the remedies to be applied to reduce the friction that always comes with such changes. This is what I have been aiming to do: I shall leave it to you to judge how far I have succeeded. If there were still some difficulties to clarify, some parts to revision in order to bring this work to perfection, I would be ready to devote to it all the necessary time, with no other ambition than to be useful to my country and, in some ways, to give my contribution to the accomplishment of such a great project.

It only remains for me to give, through articles for a decree, the dispositions that I find most suitable to realise the reform in all of its parts. This project will serve, more than anything else, as a way to judge the merit of [my] work and it is the only reason that led me to propose it.

The reasons for the law could be summarised as follows: The uniformity of measures is no less beneficial to commerce, which must be based on honesty, than to society in general, especially to the progress of science. This uniformity is but a consequence of the unity of laws. Lastly, this reform becomes essential to prevent the inconveniences of the diversity of measures, which the division of the realm in departments would make more evident. Considering all of the above, it could be decreed:

ARTICLE ONE Starting from the 1st of January 1791, all measures of weight and length currently existing in the realm shall be abolished and so shall they remain; so that in every juridical, tariff, commercial and public act, no other units shall be used at the time of said day 1 January 1791 than those indicated below. However, people are still free to use the units they consider appropriate, unless in case of controversy, where they shall be converted into the new ones before any judgement is passed.

II All measures, both of weight and length mentioned below shall be called national measures, national weights and so shall their subdivisions, to avoid confusion with the previous ones.

III The third part of the length of the seconds pendulum of the Parish observatory shall constitute the pied national and be the prototype for all the other measures.

IV The pendulum length shall be reported with exactitude on a bar of pure platinum at a given temperature and in the presence of the commissioners, who shall be elected by the royal academy of science and who, in case of necessity, shall promptly work towards a more rigorous determination; the aforementioned platinum bar shall be preciously preserved at the Hôtel-de-Ville in Paris as a monument of the operation, to be used in case of need. It shall be redacted by municipal officials a verbal process, both on the deposit of said measure and on the procedures done by the academy commissioners to obtain the silver pied national, which shall serve as prototype.

V The national pied national, determined above, shall be divided into 10 pouches, a pouche into 10 lignes, a ligne into 10 points or primes. The perche nationale shall be 10 national pieds. The milliare national shall be 1000 national perches.  The aune nationale shall be 3 and ½ national pieds. The arpent national shall be 100 square national perches. The moule national, for firewood, shall be 100 cubic pieds nationaux.

VI The measure of capacity or national measure (which can also be called protade) for grains, powdered and fluid materials and all the other ones which can be measured in recipients shall be the cubic pied national. The national measure will be divided into 10 décades. The décade into 10 écatades. The écatade into 10 chiliades. The muid national will be 10 national measures or 10 cubic pieds nationaux. The standards of all aforementioned measures, both those, which are multiples of the cubic pied, and their relative sub-multiples, shall have the shape of a cylinder or that of a truncated cone, for more precision and safety during the calibration, wherever the cubic shape might be inconvenient; all, according to instructions that shall be included in the law.

VII The livre nationale shall be determined by the weight of either distilled or rain water, the latter purged from air, at a fixed temperature, subjected to a volume of 10 cubic pouces nationaux. The livre nationale shall be divided into 10 onces. The once national into 10 gros. The gros national into 10 deniers. The denier national into 10 grains. The grain national into tenths, hundredths, etc. The quintal national shall be 100 livres nationales, or equal to the weight of a cubic pied of water.

VIII A silver livre nationale shall be crafted, whose exactitude shall be acknowledged by the same commissaries of the academy, to be deposited with their verbal process in the archives of the Hôtel-de-Ville of Paris and to be used there as prototype. Another silver livre nationale shall be deposited and preserved in the Paris mint, with the weight standards constituting its main subdivisions, which are: an once, a gros, a denier and a grain, all of them made of silver, verified and approved by the academy commissaries.

IX Standards of both the pied national and livre nationale shall be made of copper, the latter together with its weight subdivisions: 5on, 3on, 1on, 5grs, 3grs, 1grs, 5den, 3den, 1den, 5gn, 3gn, 1gn, and 2 demi-grains, which shall be hallmarked by an official, appointed for this purpose, and sent to every district administration, in all the different departments of the realm and three months after the publication of the law.

X The production of the aforementioned measure standards shall be put out to tender at a discount; and, in order to maintain the uniformity of the pied national and, at the same time, to have it done at a moderate price, the successful bidder shall be granted a two-year time privilege for the manufacture of the said pied national only, whether of copper, wood, or other materials; all, on the condition that none is issued until it has been thoroughly checked and hallmarked, and to always have enough to supply the capital and the entire kingdom.

XI Under the authority of the administrative assembly, a verifier shall be elected in each district, whose duty shall be that to preserve and hallmark the measurement standards, to whom every artisan and merchant shall refer for the calibration and hallmark of their own standards; a fee shall be set for the verifier, according to the quality of said weight and measure standards.

XII The verifier chosen in each district can mark the ancient measure standards, provided that their quality is adequate and only after having converted them all into the new ones indicated above or into their multiples.

XIII At the same time as the verifiers place the mark on the measure standards, whether new or ancient, and principally on those of capacity as well as weights, he shall stamp in figures and initial letters, the value or numerical expression of the quantity of the aforementioned measures and weights.

XIV District administrations shall task the aforementioned verifiers, or someone else deemed suitable, to make a general table with the conversion ratios between all the measures in use in their territory and the national ones; the table shall be posted in the town hall of the chief town of said district.

XV In every account relative to finance, commerce and others, sums shall only be expressed in livres-tournois, tenths, hundredths and thousandths. These words, livres-tournois, shall never be separated, until the habit of replacing one expression with the other becomes sufficiently spread; at that point, the law shall state the suppression of the former one. To facilitate both the relationship between decimal calculation and the actual coinage, and the true fractionary payments, some pieces of two sous or decimes, representing one tenth of a livre, and some pieces of sous or demi-decime, representing one twentieth of a livre shall be produced, when new billon coins are made. Lastly, a coin of lower value, under the name of obole or of centime shall be produced as well. Actual billon coins shall maintain their current usage until it is ordered otherwise.

XVI In all accounts, concerning money sums, delivered quantities or works to be measured, said quantities shall be calculated with enough decimal numbers, so that it results a sufficiently exact approximation for fractional sums. Approximations shall be as follows: For all money sums, at least one thousandth of the main unit, or three decimals of the livre-tournois. For all measures of linear extension, one thousandth of the unit of the specified measure, or three decimals. For all measures of surface, ten thousandths of the specified unit, or four decimals. For cubic and capacity measures, ten thousandths of the unit of all measures above the cubic pied included; and only one thousandth of the unit for measures of a lower quantity. For weights, one thousandth of the unit or three decimals; and in case of precious materials, like gold and silver, the unit shall always be the denier national. All of this shall be applied to all measures mentioned above, unless otherwise agreed or ordered in specific cases.

Notes

As already done in a previous post, I chose not to translate the words of all the measurement units in English, since in most cases there's no equivalent in said language. Italics are mine and slightly different from the original work, because I wanted to highlight the words left in French.

(1) A digitized version of Prieur's work can be found on Gallica. Here's a modern transcription of it.

(2) The other works that received mention during the National Assembly sitting of 9th May 1790, when the matter about the diversity of measures was addressed, were Découverte d'étalons justes, naturels, invariables et universels by Claude-Boniface Collignon, Observations de la Société royale d'agriculture sur l'uniformité des poids et mesures by Tillet and Abeille and Proposition faite à l'Assemblée nationale, sur les poids et mesures by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. It was the latter's proposal that caught the attention of the deputies, despite lacking the rigour and the originality of those of his colleagues.

Notes on the nomenclature

pied [pl. -s] = foot; main unit of length. The most common and used was the pied du roi, equivalent to ~ 32,48 cm or ~ 106, 56 ft. The pied national [pl. nationaux] proposed by Prieur would be ~ 33,13 cm or ~ 108,68 ft.

pouche[pl. -s] = inch.

perche [pl. -s] = "long pole", "staff"; unit of length for long distances.

milliaire [pl. -s] = mile; same as above.

aune [pl. -s] = it doesn't have a translation; this unit was used exclusively for amounts of cloth.

arpent [pl. -s] = no translation; unit for land areas.

muid [pl. -s] = no translation; unit for wheat amounts.

moule [pl. -s] = no translation; unit for firewood amounts.

livre [pl. -s] = pound; unit for both weight and currencies.

once [pl. -s] = ounce.

gros [pl. -s] = "thick penny".

denier [pl. -s] = penny.

grain [pl. -s] = grain; unit for tiny masses

décade, écatade, chiliade, protade have no translations, since these words are purely Prieur's invention.

[spoonmagister]

A Perfect Ending — The Chaotic Nature of Doing or Not Doing Things

They were all dead. The final spell blast was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my hands from the magick. And then it was all over. To make any kind of sense of it, I need to go forward 3 days, to the day the story will have started. And also ended. Time, as I have come to know it, is convoluted.

Larrius Varro, the Legion Champion at Moonmoth Legion Fort, was telling me a little story. For a Legion simpleton, his speech was laden with cryptic language, heavy-handed as it was. It was a story of corruption. Of a bad magistrate (I am told this magistrate does not exist, and I harbor no surprise at this revelation). Of bad people — a scout, a pawnbroker, a savant, a thief, and a smith. Of the inability of the law to combat these forces. Of the possibility of my taking action, and also my taking no action. Of the prayer for a bloodbath. Of the open-ended nature of the story which could possibly become VERY closed.

I related to him that I was not interested in the futile designation of good versus evil in a false realm within which good and evil only serve as a distraction. Similarly, I had no interest in those, like Larrius Varro, who restrict their own actions within something as absurd as “Law” — this was merely an excuse for inaction.

“Maybe the story will have a perfect ending,” he said as I headed to the exit. “It isn’t over yet.” He was trying to buy more sand for his hourglass. I wasn’t selling any.

As I teleported back to Tel Uvirith, it occurred to me that Larrius Varro’s story may very well be over, his prayer answered. I dug through the recent documents and pamphlets I had piled onto the desk of Netheles Berom, my personal librarian. Beneath a collection of mysteriously acquired Writs of Execution, was a copy of a two-day-old edition of The Ebonheart Bellman — a periodical of note. After briefly confirming its contents, I had Netheles copy it and sent a messenger to personally deliver it to Varro. Attached to the periodical was a note, which read simply: “The bad people are all good people now. Possibly.”

FIVE DEAD FOLLOWING CARNAGE AND CONFUSION AT BALMORA COUNCIL CLUB A high-ranking Telvanni was arrested following a bloodbath at the Balmora Council Club. Witnesses say the conflict arose over the alleged theft of one (1) silver spoon. The Telvanni, an Altmer, was released shortly after her capture. Solea Nuccusius, Fort Moonmoth Legion Guard, could not be reached for comment. The Telvanni Altmer, due to potent and constant Illusion magicks, could not be reached or identified. The names of the victims, all dunmer, are as follows: Vadusa Sathryon — scout Marasa Aren — pawnbroker Madrale Thirith — thief Sovor Trandrel — savant Thanelen Velas — smith

[transmutationisms]

sorry just realized that last ask could have been interpreted as a middlingly passive aggressive message of disappointment as to your content. when really i am confused by belle delphine hereditary nose job

ok realised that was a fairly incomprehensible post to encounter on the average dash. so i can't find it right now but there's a post that circulates from time to time with a pic of belle delphine that's captioned like "getting a nosejob so my kids are born with naturally small noses". i genuinely dk whether she said that or someone just added that text. anyway someone on here then rbed with a pic of jean baptiste lamarck, who famously articulated a theory of species evolution ('transformisme') in the aughts of the 19th century, 50 years before c darwin published his.

lamarck is like most historical figures in that he's been subject to various distortions in the written record, including the idea that he thought that an acquired biological change (like a nosejob) would be inherited immediately and fully by the next generation. in truth he did think that acquired changes could be inherited, but this was a really long-term, gradual process, and in one generation the differences you would notice would be minor, like an inclination toward a certain temperament or a certain muscle being slightly easier to train up or something ('use-disuse principle'). the nosejob thing is obviously a play on paul kammerer's famous experiment wherein he tried to 'prove' (neo-)lamarckian inheritance by like, cutting the tails off mice and injecting ink into the toepads of toads and shit. he also fabricated a bunch of his results. part of the distortion here is because later commentators (including french neo-lamarckians in the third republic, as well as, yes, lysenko) had various political reasons to exaggerate what (they said that) lamarck had said, and what sorts of claims they could make to basically bio-engineer future generations.

in truth lamarck's actual claims were fairly tame and well within the range of normal for his time—lots and lots and lots of savants were already making claims about inherited biological changes (buffon, cabanis, condorcet, to name the tip of the iceberg) and even though lamarck did depart from the mainstream in claiming the species barrier was crossable, again, he thought that would happen over the course of literally thousands of years. which is why evolutionary (transformist / transmutationist) claims also involve geological claims about the age of the earth.

[officialpenisenvy]

yesterday i had my folding fan with me at the function as i always do and when i took it out to fan myself after the mosh pit the punk guys went crazy you'd think they'd never seen a fan before. i felt like an enlightened savant civilising the brutish masses with my knowledge acquired through studious meditation at transbian techno nights

[tgrailwar-zero]

Hey Musashi, Nero! We’ve acquired a child!! He’s a little guy :]

MUSASHI: "I saw! What a little cutie. Having another face around for at least a bit isn't bad, in my opinion."

NERO: "Mm, indeed. Children are important to the growth of an empire. You must raise them well, and raise them strictly, lest they become soft."

NERO smiled proudly, before suddenly making a face as if remembering something... difficult, and quickly backpedaled.

NERO: "W-Well… that was that culture of my time, as hard as it may be to believe with me... but things change... ugh... savant I may be, but I know little of childcare. I will leave the young one in your hands, unless they require a tutor for the arts…"

MUSASHI: "Having a child around… aha, it reminds me of when I adopted my own disciples. He's already a bit more expressive than Iori was, though. Ah-- maybe Nero has a good point, I'll leave him in your hands unless he wants a sword tutor…"

It seemed like neither of them were exactly lining up to take an active role here... but they didn't seem to mind having a new presence around camp.

She chuckled, shifting awkwardly on her leg.

MUSASHI: "Oh, this little thing? Sometimes getting information means swinging swords, breaking stuff and getting really close to blades. You guys said play it risky, so I played it risky! Of course, my source doesn't want to be named, so I'll have to keep my mouth shut on that. Then I might end up a little worse off than a scraped leg, hehehe."

MUSASHI: "Don't worry. It'll heal up once we all rest. Probably."

As if to prove her point, she went back to doing her sword kata.

[david-tennant-news]

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.-Marilyn vos Savant

[rulesforthedance]

I miss being a memory savant who could read a paragraph of prose and then look up and recite it verbatim. It was a cool party trick that made me look like a freak in a fun way and also made me very good at tests (and therefore school) (the downside was that I didn't acquire a work ethic until my mid-twenties because I didn't have to). But alas, I bruised my brain a couple times by first crashing my car and then playing a full-contact sport, and now I am only better-than-average at memorizing useless information and blocks of text instead of Exceptional

[taevisionceo]

Good Morning ☕️ Have y'all a fabulous and blessed Sunday

To acquire knowledge one must study, but to acquire wisdom one must observe. ~ Marilyn vos Savant 👍💫💯 Curiosity, observation, reading and experimentation… lead us to knowledge… and by cultivating these elements, over the years, we may possibly attain some wisdom.

Connecting… Moments… 11:30am Sun, Jun 02

In my "Home Station" playing RIHANNA - DIAMONDS