============================================================ THE DSA NEWSCAST http://www.dozenal.org ============================================================ The Dozenal Society of America Vol. 2, Iss. 10 Official Newsletter 1 December 11EX ============================================================ ============================================================ = CONTENTS = ============================================================ 1. Donations 2. For Sale -Calendars for 11EE now available! 3. Dozenal News -Dozenal Video by Adam Hoek -Other Dozenal Videos 4. Society Business -Annual Meeting -Presentation at NCTM -Our Website 5. Poetical Diversion 6. Backmatter ============================================================ = DONATIONS = ============================================================ Members, please remember that while dues are no longer required for membership, we still rely on the generosity of members to keep the DSA going. Donations of any amount, large or small, are welcome and needed. A donation of $10; ($12.) will procure Subscription membership, and entitles the payer to receive both a digital and a paper copy of the _Bulletin_ if requested. Other members will receive only a digital copy. To invoke this privilege, please notify the Editor of the Bulletin, Mike deVlieger, at mdevlieger@dozenal.org As members know, we are a volunteer organization which pays no salaries. As such, every penny you donate goes toward furthering the DSA's goals. It may be worth considering a monthly donation; say, $3, or $6, or whatever seems reasonable to you. This can be set up quite easily with Paypal or WePay, both of which are available at our web site. Of course, if you prefer to donate by check, you may send them to our worthy Treasurer, Jay Schiffman, payable to the Dozenal Society of America, at: Jay Schiffman 604-36 South Washington Square, #815 Philadelphia, PA 19106-4115 ----------------------Member Benefits----------------------- Chief among the benefits of membership, aside from the knowledge of supporting the DSA's mission, is receipt of _The Duodecimal Bulletin_. In addition, however, members also receive (digitally) a membership card containing their vital member information and a monthly calendar with dozenal numbers, containing suitable and educational dozenal quotations and graphics, laid out for wall display. To receive these, please notify us that you'd like to receive them: Contact@dozenal.org ============================================================ = FOR SALE = ============================================================ We are excited to announce the availability of calendars for next year, 11EE! The DSA is pleased to offer the following for sale. These are all either at cost, or the proceeds go to the Society. Wall Calendar for 11EE, coiled binding $10.05 Weekly Planner for 11EE $8.29 TGM: A Coherent Dozenal Metrology $8.00 Prices are, unfortunately but by necessity, in decimal. To find these works, simply go to: http://www.lulu.com/shop/shop.ep and enter the appropriate terms. E.g., searching for "11EE" will turn up these calendars and the planner; searching for "TGM dozenal" will turn up the TGM book. We hope to offer other titles, and even some other items (such as dozenal clocks and the like), in the near future. ============================================================ = DOZENAL NEWS = ============================================================ Member (and newly elected board member) John Volan has drawn our attention to a wondeful video on some of the advantages of dozenal by Adam Hoek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVk_viJEDII Emphasizing the importance of the number three, this video is a great advertisement for dozenal. Indeed, it turns out that there are a great many dozenal videos on Youtube, many of which are quite worth the watch. Some examples: Numberphile on Base 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xjfP7-HCc Adam Victor on Dozenal Hand Signs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssK9pTyK1C0 Ron Israeli on The Duodecimal system advantage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCAevjNva0 (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anh_IHokV7M (Part 2) Huylebrouck on Base 12 counting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs6w2yf7WDk It is also worthwhile searching for dozenal videos by Ben Crowder and Adam Harbaugh, who have videos on doing arithmetic in our favorite base. A number of dozenal articles have also come to our attention over the past month: "Dozen make sense" by Mary Jackson: http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_comment.cfm/blog_id/28222/Dozen-make-sense "For Math-Heads and Policy Wonks Only -- Popcorn by the Colonel #66B" http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2013/10/for-math-heads-and-policy-wonks-only.html (In German): "Duodezimal - Rechnen mit der Basis 12" http://www.duodezimal.de The DSA has not been idle, either; we are pleased to announce the publication of another historical dozenal article, excerpted from a larger work on arithmetic: "A Duodecimal Scale", by Dr. Edward Brooks http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/content/duodecimal-scale This work is short but sweet, detailing one of the earlier complete proposals for a dozenal system. Readers interested in the historical development of dozenalism will notice in it the roots of the dozenal systems of Dr. Sydney Reeves and Rev. Thomas Freeman. ============================================================ = SOCIETY BUSINESS = ============================================================ -----------------------Annual Meeting----------------------- The DSA had a very successful annual meeting this year, well-attended and very interesting. We gathered at the Apple Boardroom at the Richmond Marriott on Friday, 12 November, while the Regional Conference of the National Conference of Teachers of Mathematics continued in the rooms around us. Present were Gene Zirkel (#67); Jay Schiffman (#2X8); Donald Goodman (#398); Jen Seron (#3A2); Dan Simon (#395); Timothy Travis (#342); and Pat Zirkel. Attending digitally was newly elected Board Member John Volan (#418), who was good enough to join us for the duration of both the board and membership meetings. This was our first attempt at video conferencing, put together at the very last minute and requiring some extra equipment (also at the last minute) from the hotel, and ended up working very well. John has agreed to explore the possibility of allowing video conferencing on a larger scale in the future, so hopefully we will be able to have more members attend this way for our 59th annual meeting next year. Also attending for several hours by phone was our Editor, Michael deVlieger (#37E), who was able to give us an update on our Bulletin as well as make a proposal for Dozenal Consensus Numerals, about which more later. The routine matters of our board and membership meetings went by quickly. The Board of Directors Class of 1201 was elected without incident, as was the slate of officers and the board appointments. Newly seated board member John Volan suggested further digital outreach, via our website and for meetings between members. He suggested perhaps a regular digital meetup by video conference---Skype or Google Talk were possibilities---to allow members to interact with one another and to spread ideas. Perhaps a planned talk on some topic of interest on dozenals or other non-decimal bases, followed by discussions from participating members on that topic. Some of these talks could perhaps be recorded and made videos, podcasts, or both available on our website. He also pointed out some excellent dozenal multimedia content available on Youtube, and wondered why the DSA had not been part of producing this material. Members present agreed that we should be part of this. He suggested outreach and recruitment on the makers of many of these excellent videos (many of which are linked to in this issue of your Newscast), and members agreed that we should explore ways of sponsoring or producing such content. Member Timothy Travis, in particular, spoke about the power of elegant and well-designed graphics, and Mike deVlieger noted that John Volan's voice and his visual design skills could be a powerful combination. Secretary Jen Seron spoke about the DSA's session at the NCTM Regional Conference the day before. (See below for more information that.) Chairman and Treasurer Jay Schiffman also described the program that he and Editor Mike deVlieger put on at another NCTM Regional Conference in Indianapolis several weeks before. We agreed that these conferences held potential for our outreach and education missions; and that though they were absorbing an unusually large amount of our funding, this potential was worth our continuing to attempt doing them for at least the next few years. Editor Mike deVlieger informed us that he has plenty of material for the next Bulletin and will be putting it together over the next month or two. If all goes well, we will have another issue around the end of the year. He briefly described some of the material it will contain; but we won't put any spoilers here. Members discussed and agreed that our next meeting should be somewhere in the southern Midwest, likely Cincinnati. More details will be announced as plans firm up. Our 60th Annual Meeting two years from now will be in St. Louis, MO. As the gateway to the West, long an American symbol of progress and improvement, this provides a perfect location for the start of the 12th biquennium. Mike deVlieger made a proposal for Dozenal Consensus Numerals in the coming biquennium (starting in 1200; (2016.)). He noted that the Pitman dozenal numerals (long used by the Dozenal Society of Great Britain, and consisting of an inverted two and three) were due to be accepted into Unicode (in positions U+218A and U+218B) in 1200; (2016.). We will, of course, notice that this just happens to be the year of the big dozenal extravaganza that the DSA is hoping to plan in honor of its 60th anniversary and the beginning of the 12th biquennium. Mike proposed this as a powerful argument in favor of adopting these numerals, as they are the *only* dozenal numerals available in Unicode. Gene Zirkel was more skeptical, noting that the DSA had departed from its longstanding Dwiggins numerals once before, in favor of the Bell numerals, and it had been an unquestionable failure. The decision was made to table the issue until our next Annual Meeting and put the issue to the membership in the interim; the board can then take this input into account in making its decision. Members should expect to here more about this in the near future. These important issues discussed, the members present voted unanimously to adjourn and retired for dinner and fellowship together, wrapping up a successful and productive meeting. --------------------Presentation at NCTM-------------------- The DSA also gave two presentations this year, both at regional conferences of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; the first in Indianapolis, IN, and the second in Richmond, VA. In Indianapolis, Editor Michael deVlieger (#37E) and Board Chairman Jay Schiffman (#2X8) presented a program to about half a dozen interested participants. Readers interested in knowing more are encouraged to request it from them. In Richmond, Donald Goodman (#398), Secretary Jen Seron (3X2), and Board Member Dan Simon (#395) presented a program on alternate bases to another half dozen or so participants. Despite being opposite from very strong programs, these participants expressed great interest, several mentioning that they had never really heard of the concept before. One graduate student specifically expressed interest in joining the Society, as did a professor; the student stated she was especially interested in Mike deVlieger's "Multiplication Tables in Various Bases." All in all, while our presentations weren't particularly well attended, those who did attend showed a lot of interest, and we were able to distribute a good deal of literature and awareness of our Society and its mission. They must thus be classified as successes. ------------------------Our Website------------------------- The close of the year seems to merit a review of some of our biggest outreaches. Other than our meeting and presentation, our most important outreach is our website. Our website continues to generate a great deal of traffic, as well as attract a great many members. Since our last annual meeting, we have received 64 new members (and welcome to all of them); all but one of these has been through the website. This alone should qualify the endeavor as a success. In other metrics, the website's exposure continues to improve. Since our last update in February, our traffic has been mostly steady, but with a slight upward slant. We went from a low of about 70 views per day in August to our current average of about X0 per day, with some days going up to 17E and a few as low as 38. These low days have become less and less common and the higher days more and more. There was a huge spike 40E views on 3 April, for reasons that I simply can't determine, and smaller spikes on 18 June, 1X July, and 25-26 September. Our top pages are mostly category pages, such as "Articles and Books" and "Educational Materials." This latter contains the materials used in our presentations both in Atlanta and in Richmond this year, and it is the third most popular page on our site. For individual articles, by far the most popular are "Fundamentals Operations in the Dozenal System" and "A Brief Introduction to Dozenal Counting," which are flying off the digital shelves. Also popular is James Malone's classic, "Eggsactly a Dozenal," and Mike deVlieger's "Multiplication in Base Twelve." Our "Practice Your Dozenal Arithmetic Page" is quite popular, as is "Decimal-Dozenal Conversion Rules." Mike deVlieger's "Multiplication Tables of Various Bases" remains quite high on the list, as well, and Michael Punter's "ZCaculator" is getting a large number of downloads. Our visitors come predominantly from the United States; the United Kingdom and Canada are nearly neck-and-neck. Surprisingly, Germany, Sweden, and France are also frequent visitors, with Australia unsurprisingly in the mix. We're also seeing significant numbers from the other parts of the EU, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Most users find our website by searching for the predictable terms: "dozenal," "dozenal society," and "base 12" are the three most common. We're getting more and more from "duodecimal," and we're also getting hits from individuals seeking specific tools, like "dozenal calculator" and "dozenal clock." Aside from search engines, many users are finding us from the Wikipedia article "Duodecimal" and from the io9 article "Why We Should Switch to a Base-12 Counting System," among other less common sources. Surprisingly, one of our more common referers is a Korean site, ilbe.com; Google Translate indicates is a news aggregator. Our website remains a powerful tool for bringing our message to the world, and thereby fulfilling our educational mission. Thanks to everyone who helps make it what it is, especially our many great writers, who give us the content that all these users are coming for. ============================================================ = POETICAL DIVERSION = ============================================================ Dozenal, Dozenal Many factors you give me Three times four, twelve times one, I am happy to see you Radix of ease may you bloom and grow Bloom and grow forever Dozenal, Dozenal Bless my homework forever Fourths and thirds ease my work I was happy to find you Radix of ease may you bloom and grow Bloom and grow forever Dozenal, Dozenal Bless my homework forever ---Gene Zirkel (#67) ============================================================ = BACKMATTER = ============================================================ _The DSA Newscast_ is a production of the Dozenal Society of America. If you have received this publication in error, or otherwise do not wish to receive it anymore, please unsubscribe by mailing a message containing the string "UNSUBSCRIBE NEWSCAST", exactly as typed, in its body, to the Reply-To address of this message. For questions, comments, submissions, or other communication with the _Newscast_, please write to: newscast@dozenal.org EACH ONE, TEACH ONE