5 days ago5 min readOrwell was an Optimist!Contrary to the apparent belief of some in the world today, the book Nineteen Eighty-Four was not intended to be an instruction manual...
Oct 234 min readLet’s Get Weird!Words are weird. The word “weird” is a particularly weird word. Aside from the spelling, the way it has been used is hard to pin down,...
Oct 166 min readWelcome to the Rage Machine!One of my all-time favourite songs is Welcome to the Machine , by Pink Floyd. While the song appeared on the 1975 album Wish You Were...
Oct 95 min readRasputinIt’s been more than two years since I last posted, so I’m trying to remember which buttons to press to make this happen. Life has a...
Jul 24, 20223 min readJellies!When the COVID-19 pandemic began (need to be specific here, to avoid confusion ...), I recall a lot of people emphasizing the need to...
Jun 26, 20224 min readMove the Earth!“Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth” “δῶς μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω” Archimedes is described as a mathematician,...
Jun 12, 20223 min readKilling in the Name!Who’d have thought that music could be political? Or that musicians might have political views? Let’s take the song Killing in the Name...
Jun 5, 20223 min readApathy!As I have noted before, I tend to avoid politics as a primary focus of my writing. But this last Ontario election worries me quite a...
May 23, 20223 min readThe Plural of Linux!It’s been a while, but the Latin plural should be “Linuces” (3rd declension noun), but don’t worry – I won’t use that. Non-technical...
May 15, 20223 min readAn Honest Man!The Greek philosopher Diogenes is famous for carrying a lantern during the day, claiming he was “searching for an honest man”. Yet...
May 1, 20223 min readSilos!“Why can’t we all just get along?” This was the question asked by the incomparable Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks! Nicholson’s...
Apr 24, 20224 min readJust asking questions!“That is the question!” Or is it? The problem with many questions nowadays lies in the motivations behind the asking. By quoting out of...
Apr 17, 20224 min readRelativity!M. C. Escher has always been one of my favourite artists. From the moment I first saw his work (I think it might have been Waterfall), I...
Apr 10, 20223 min readThe Name is the Thing!Some films age well. An example is the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was fairly successful when it was originally released...
Apr 3, 20224 min readThe Wall!#TIL that the iconic image of the album cover for the famous album The Wall was not actually the original cover. In fact, the text “Pink...
Mar 27, 20224 min readAll in this Together!When I write, I sometimes have a topic in mind, and look for an interesting way to introduce it. This time, I ended up going down an...
Mar 20, 20224 min readTrust The Science!“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” A vastly amusing quote from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, about which I will, erm, make...
Mar 13, 20224 min readTwo Years In!In Canada, it was almost exactly two years ago that the COVID-19 lockdowns started. When students went away on March break, and didn’t...
Mar 6, 20222 min readNot a plumber!The great John Cleese describes the Dunning-Kruger Effect in a brilliantly concise way which is vastly entertaining. Brilliant!...
Feb 27, 20224 min readSchool!Over the decades, the way we listen to music has changed, and it’s interesting to wonder about the implications of those changes. Prior...