Today I Learned

Wartime picture of a Bletchley Park Bombe, via Wikipedia.org I’m mentioned Alan Turing  and (some of) his contributions to computer technology, and still managed to not even mention the work which probably had the greatest influence on the world at the time. For a bit of background, the Enigma machine  was a cipher device that was developed in the years after World War I. To simplify dramatically, it used three rotors (four, in some models) which turned in sequence after each

Charlie Chaplin, in The Great Dictator, 1940, via Wikimedia Commons Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about fascism. While I already had a fair degree of familiarity and understanding of the big picture, I’ve been picking up (and often blogging about) items which are new to me. Predictably, most are disturbing, but I occasionally come across something wonderful. Charlie Chaplin  was an immensely influential figure in the history of cinema, and his “Tramp” character has been an

Tai Chi Single Whip – sculpture by Ju Ming, via Wikipedia.org Even though I’ve written several times about martial arts training,...

Star Trek Title Sequence – Original Pilot – via YouTube Probably everyone has heard the iconic line: “Space: The Final Frontier.” I hear...

Antarctic Krill, via Wikimedia Commons The concept of biomass is both interesting and useful when thinking about life on Earth. In...

Artificial Intelligence, via Wikimedia Commons “People grow through experiences, if they meet life honestly and courageously. That is how...

Is Religion Like a Drug? | Rev | BBC Comedy Greats, via YouTube “You’ll feel that God reached out to you with his love.” “What does that...

Emo Philips, Opening for Weird Al Yankovic at the Apollo Theatre Today I learned the word “ paraprosdokian ”. According to Wikipedia, the...

WarGames, 1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXzNo0vR_dU I can only hear that question in the voice of the computer Joshua, from the...

So, it’s HER fault! :) I recently wrote about why Y2K was such a big deal. To summarize, one major reason was the cost of computer...

The exception that proves the rule . We’ve all heard the phrase, but I think most people use it without understanding it or knowing where...

“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” George Orwell,...

Canadians have a reputation for being nice. I’d like to think it’s well-deserved, but it’s more of a notional goal than a day-to-day...

This might look like a standard cup game, but it’s actually a very interesting test. I won’t spoil it for you – give it a try. ...

People make mistakes. Lots of them. We’re very good at making them, but not so good at preventing them. It can be fun to go down the...

Code talker ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker ) is a name given to military personnel who used a “little-known” language to...

For anyone not familiar with it, Mind Your Language ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Your_Language ) was a British sitcom running in...

After commenting ( https://www.til-technology.com/post/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu ) on how useful my prior familiarity with the C programming...