Metric Paper

In 1922 Germany came up with a standard for paper sizes that had nothing to do with aesthetics. DIN476 was devised by Dr. Walter Porstmann in order to save paper. 

A sheet of "A0" paper is 841mm × 1189mm, which is equal to1 square meter (well, minus a skosh). And you may have noticed that metric paper is not sold on pounds bond but in grams per square meter.

The proportion is 1 × √2. Porstmann's Big Idea of print room hygiene is that, under his system, every time you cut the paper in half parallel to the small side you get two sheets with the same short to long side ratio. So the fourth time you cut a sheet smaller, you get A4 paper, which is 1/16th of a meter in area and -- Look, Ma!! -- has the same ratio of short side to long side as the A0 one meter sheet. That must have really tickled Herr Doktor Porstmann's über-hygienic Teutonic fancy.

So anyway that is why metric "letter size" paper sort of looks like a teenager that grew up in a vegetarian home. 

I couldn't leave well enough alone, and had to look up whether print room hygiene scales down to business card size. If there is any respect for Porstmann's ghost, German business cards should be A8, a tad smaller than what we call business card size, at 52.5×74mm. 

Well there is such a thing as A8. I note that the official A8 dimensions are not as calculated, but are fudged down to 52×74mm. Hmm.  

And A8 is NOT what is/was used for business cards in Metric Land. One must say auf wiedersehen to DIN476 and Porstmann's Big Idea because it just didn't cut it as a Small Idea. One must now step over to ISO 7810 ID dash 1, the separate Business Card standard. Why? Because the metric A# system is just too skinny and anemic looking, especially next to one's collection of healthy American business cards. 

So: what dimensions did they adopt for ISO 7810 ID-1 ?  

As close as they could come to 2-1/8" × 3-3/8"! The USA card size! But it's metric so 54×85.6mm.  

And I just KNOW down to my toes that European printers are laying out their business cards 3-up on their A4 card stock, cutting them out, like a normal person, with their paper guillotine, and leaving their snippels on the print room floor -- for later eco-hygienic recycling, of course.

Autumn Cool and Bright

No clouds, cool breeze, leaves falling...

Best of times.

(Humming a bit of a tune.)

"Live" Streaming an Execution

"If you look at the list of countries engaging in public executions these days, it includes Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia (although the latter is changing). Is that a group to emulate?" 

Good question from The New Neo.

This, though:

But I think I am agnostic-to-negative on the open public spectacle thing.

Twenty Years Ago . . .

Believe it or not, I am an athlete. In Spring of 1972 I quit my high school track team because -- well actually, because I  was in no way any kind of athlete. 

Then in 2004 it seemed to be a good idea to get some aerobic exercise, and after some fits and starts I found the Couch to 5K plan. Which works! It works so well I've done the C25K four or five times now, after injuries and downtimes of one kind or another. 

Anyway, I sort of got into the running. More for mental health than cardio health, as it turned out. 

Long story short, in October of 2006 I ran a half marathon in an hour and 57 minutes (and some seconds). I'm proud of that, to be honest: 13.1 miles at a sustained pace just under nine minutes per mile. Photo above. There were fewer pixels to reality in 2006 apparently.

But here we are 20 years later. Seems impossible it's 20 years. My  glory days seem to be over. New personal records are a thing of the past. 

That was THEN. What about NOW? 

I walk quite a bit. I'm back to running (I call it running) once or twice a week. Pace per mile? Um, about 15 minutes per mile. Just trying to get the body used to faster-than-walking bipedal locomotion. Getting stronger. Who knows? Maybe I can set some new personal Seniors Running records! 

New Moon Saturday Morning

New moon is this Saturday, 10 Oct 2026 at 8:50 am Pacific Daylight Time. 

You have been warned. 

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary

Our Blessed Mother giving the Holy Rosary to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine  at the St. Dominic's Catholic Church side altar in Benicia, California (photo from 2018).

The 7th of October is the traditional feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary. Being a Dominican parish, we celebrated as a Solemnity last Sunday. 

Eva Marie Saint

She was 102 years old when she passed away today. One of the classic faces. 

Ingrid Bergman, Olivia de Havilland, Grace Kelly... They could do their acting from the neck up.