Chain Letter Evolution
A history of chain letters based on a collection of over 575 dated examples. Numerically successful variations are identified in the sample and analyzed for their replicative advantage. English language paper luck chain letters of the last hundred years are the principal topic. Other topics include the Letters from Heaven and the origin of money chain letters. A bibliography on chain letters and pyramid schemes contains hundreds of sources, including all citations in Chain Letter Evolution. A glossary of specialized terminology used in Chain Letter Evolution is also provided.

The Paper Chain Letter Archive.
A collection of over 575 paper chain letters, digitized and presented as separate HTML files in the archive directory. An information page explains what is in the archive and how to use it. An index lists the names of all the files in the archive in alphabetic order. Letter citations in Chain Letter Evolution link to the archive.

Eat No Dynamite  ***ADULT CONTENT***
A documented collection of over 900 graffiti, including 64 drawings, from the main libraries at UCSB and UCLA.  Most were recorded in 1979 and 1980. Comments, including estimates of dispersion.

Four Letters from Millie: 1930-31
Four personal letters to a male admirer from a woman abandoned by her husband.  "Yes dear, I will come there if you send me money."

Matchmaking letter and response: 1917
A matchmaking letter from an engaged woman to a Yale student and his enthusiastic response, "provided if she is musical."

Four Letters to Helen Porter: 1926-31
Four personal letter sent to Miss Helen Porter in Detroit. The first is an unsuccessful proposal of marriage. "I hope you don't think me foolish."

Homogeneous Transformation Matrices
Explicit n-dimensional expressions for homogeneous matrix representations of familiar geometric transformations including projection, dilation, reflection, shear, strain, and rotation. These are extracted from my article "Homogeneous Transformation Matrices for Computer Graphics," Computers & Graphics, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1994.

Homogeneous Coordinates: Methods
A selection of facts, theorems and methods utilizing homogeneous coordinates. This is a companion article to "Homogeneous Transformation Matrices" and provides methods sufficient to derive all the matrices presented there. Other topics include: n-dimensional oriented content, intersections, and projection.

Subject Guide to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  (with drawing "Human Rights Ascendance")

Fundamentalism Exposed.
A copyright-free criticism of Biblical fundamentalism from a logical, factual, moral and political perspective. Includes:

CHILD KILLING  "So Joshua . . . utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded" (Josh 10:40). The Old Testament claims that God commanded the killing of infants and children to accomplish genocide, group vengeance, and punishment. Imagine if someone killed your child and justified it by saying God told him to do it. See Josh 6:17-21; Deut 2:30- 34; 20:16-17; Isa 14:21; 1 Sam 15:1-3; Num 31:1-2 and 17; Ex 12:29; Gen 7:23; Josh 7:24-25; 2 Kgs 2:23-24.

 SANTA is a decentralized communication process opposing deceit and exploitation of children by the media.  We use only education, rebuke, and satire.  No person's name may be mentioned. Anyone who loves the truth and obeys these rules may fully participate in SANTA.

Vintage Costume Jewelry Owl Pendants.
Since 1987 I have collected over 950 different costume jewelry owl pendants. Almost all were purchased used, initially at California swap meets and thrift stores, later on eBay. Most were mass produced during a fad for owl pendants during the 1970's. Links are provided here to view the entire collection using 33 PicasaWeb Albums. Each item is individually photographed and documented. I hope this will assist collectors of owl jewelry, and provide the general viewer with an appreciation of this episode in popular design.

The womb gate has opened and closed -- William Blake Dylan
Several poems and fragments given to me by an anonymous hitchhiker in 1973. They express his painful discovery that his mother could no longer help him, and that his counter-culture friendships and drug experiences were fleeting and duality ridden.

Fossil Nonsense: United States vs. Alan VanArsdale et. al.    (See photomicrograph of tiny fossil teeth)
Recent (6/17/2003) information on a civil suit seeking title to 28,000 tiny micro-vertebrates fossils donated to a museum in 1993. The fossils were found by my son, Alan VanArsdale. A settlement was reached in March, 2000, however the United States has failed to take the necessary action to implement it. Includes a section titled "The back stabbing Dr. X: lose your childhood adulation of paleontologists."

Wayne Morris Bell, 1937-1968.
A tribute to a close friend who served with me in the Army in Korea in 1963 and was killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.

 The Little Golden Concert Hour 
Have you ever heard of this local radio program from around 1950, probably broadcast from San Jose, California?

Paranormal Journal Entries
A list of over 20 experiences, by myself or people close to me, that appear to involve some paranormal phenomenon. Most are seeming precognitive dreams I have had, as recorded in my journal. Example:

7/18/1992, 8:22 AM. Oxnard. From journal, volume #17.
     "Dreamed about a piano tuning last night. A child wanted to play while the tuner worked. I told the child he couldn't do that, that it broke the tuner's concentration.
     "Then this morning, just now, a piece finally ended on KPFK-FM. The host said he had a couple calls, and that one was from a piano tuner. This was the first  sentence I heard this morning - the music had been playing before."

Chess with Chinese Pieces.
 

Advocates free placement of the chess pieces to form a starting position, and the addition of "Chinese" pieces: the Pao or Cannon, Vao and Leo. These move like an orthodox Rook, Bishop and Queen respectively, but must pass over a piece of either color to capture. Presents several new chess problems and endgame studies using Chinese pieces. For each problem there is a link to its solution.
  Other chess pages:
Dodgson's 'Frogs Manuscript' Decoded  - an apocryphal Lewis Carroll legacy purported to have been recently decoded.
Employ the Dead - Sam Loyd's Dummy Promotion problem.
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  << Solution
 

This index page: http://www.silcom.com/~barnowl/index.html