Today I Learned

VOTE! Everyone who is eligible should vote. Always. And I have a message for anyone who says there’s no point in voting, and say that it won’t make a difference... <OBSCENITY-LADEN RANT REDACTED> Or, to be a bit more civil, the idea that voting doesn’t matter is a strategic piece of disinformation being pushed by various groups in order to discourage those who might vote against them. Keep a sense of pragmatic optimism, and vote! When I talk about politics, I usually give US-

Polly Darton, via Muppet Wiki Dolly Parton was a cultural icon, and her list of accomplishments and accolades is truly astonishing. Describing her as a “singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman” represents a profound level of understatement, but I guess we need to start somewhere. Referring to her as 'Queen of Country' is a bit closer, with over 50 albums of her own, over 200 compilation albums, 25 Number One songs, 41 Top 10 country albums, over 100 million record sales

Cover of The World of Null-A, by A. E. van Vogt. 1st edition cover, via Wikipedia.org A truism does not a scientific discipline make. I last mentioned A. E. van Vogt’s Null-A novels a long time ago, noting the phrase “the map is not the territory”, which is a key concept of the Null-A universe. The phrase is actually a quote from Alfred Korzybski, in his book Science and Sanity, which formed the foundation for the school of thought known as General Semantics. Described by its

Great Pyramid of Giza, via Wikimedia Commons NOTE: An edited version of this article appeared on The Skeptic (UK). “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, section 5.6 Language may be the most powerful tool we have, and I believe it must be used responsibly. But what is language? What’s a tool? What does it mean to use it responsibly? Such questions are deceptively simple, because “everyone knows” what langu

Reflections (band), Live at the Skyway Theater 2014, via Wikimedia Commons This keeps happening, and I love it! I wanted to talk about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but I like having two topics which tie together in some way. That’s why I sometimes simply search on a word or phrase, then see if there’s anything I find new and interesting. That’s how I learned about the Icelandic band Mammút, for example. In this case, I searched on the word ‘reflections’, and found th

Flag of Russia, via Wikimedia Commons Everyone seems to need a villain. For many, that villain is Russia. I won’t go into the long, complex history, or discuss how our current geopolitical situation evolved, but I do wonder about the degree to which people have an enemy because they want or need one. Several years ago, I posted about Theory X and Theory Y, where X assumes that people are inherently unmotivated and need to be actively ‘managed’, while Y assumes people are gene

Artificial Intelligence Icon, via Wikimedia Commons Everyone is so out-of-touch. Are they? Really? And, if so, why might that be? Many people think it’s an age thing, but I don’t. I remember several variations on the idea that someone who is not a ‘socialist’ (or ‘liberal’, or ‘républicain’) at twenty has no heart, and one who is still such at forty has no brain – I didn’t think much about it when I was young, but now believe that it’s utter bullshit. I have come to realize t

Football, via Wikimedia Commons I wanted to talk about the political football that is Bill C-22 in Canada, so I found a picture of a football, and - What? Wrong type of football? Oh. Right. Sorry. So much soccer lately, and my main interest in the other type of football is the halftime show, particularly when it causes fascist heads to explode, like the 2026 show where Bad Bunny ended up collecting nine Emmy nominations for a performance that was really a full-on attack again

Cyclospora cayetanensis, via Wikimedia Commons I was surprised to learn that Waldo is actually Wally, and that he’s only been around since 1987. I first heard of him as an adult, but always assumed that he had been around for years before that period where he appeared to be everywhere. Just like Robert F Kennedy, about whom I have written several times. Most recently, I described the changes he made to the Food Pyramid, but I have also discussed his anti-vax views and his app

Charity meme, via www.rallycorp.com I sometimes find it useful to dig into assumptions, particularly when they are hiding in the “everyone knows...” category. While charity and philanthropy are related, most comparisons of the two words seem to focus on charity as a short-term provision of aid or support, and philanthropy as more strategic and focused on longer-term, systemic change. But when I started looking into how philanthropy is promoted, I found some interesting assump

Louis Armstrong, via Wikimedia Commons Louis Armstrong was one of the truly great musicians, and What a Wonderful World is one of the truly great songs. To get just a hint of his influence, have a look at his discography. Section 1 consists of releases on 78 and 45 rpm, released between 1923 (before either of my parents were born) and 1970 (when I was a toddler), while section 2 consists of LPs and EPs, released between 1944 and 1971. Absolutely unbelievable, and if you think

Artificial Intelligence, via Wikimedia Commons NOTE: An edited version of this article appeared on The Skeptic (UK). We live in a sea of cognitive biases. Everyone is affected. All of us. All the time. Psychologists study them, as do economists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers, but no one is immune to them. Skeptics need to understand them, and I suspect that most are able to rattle off a list as easily as they can a list of logical fallacies. It is essential, however,

Cover of The Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner, 1975 I sometimes hear references to one “futurist” or another, making pronouncements regarding current trends and where they may lead, and I must confess that I have been unimpressed. My impression is that this area of study is still in its infancy, so the level of scientific rigour applied to the work ranges wildly. Sometimes, I see the incremental analysis of trends and cautious suggestions of possible hypotheses for future res

“Beware of the Leopard”, from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, via Wikimedia Commons In the classic scene from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (I refer, of course, to the 1981 TV version), Arthur Dent confronts the person trying to bulldoze his house, who explains that the plans for the demolition had been placed on display. “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar.” “That’s the display department.” “With a torch.” “The lights had probably gone.” “So had t

Da Vinci sketch of the human brain and skull (c. 1510), via Wikimedia.org NOTE: An edited version of this article appeared on The Skeptic (UK). “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill, 11-Nov-1947 The term “neurodiversity” has been used in recent years to describe the natural variations in human neurolo

Bubbles, from Finding Nemo, via YouTube.com Finding Nemo was a great film, filled with endless references, sight-gags, and characters, making it the sort of movie you can watch again and again. Among the wonderful scenes is one with Bubbles (voiced by Stephen Root), who gets a bit... excited when he sees bubbles. As Gill says, “Fish aren’t meant to be in a box, kid. It does things to you.” But why would people be thinking so much about bubbles? It’s not as if we’re in the mid

Bronze coin of Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judaea © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. dixit itaque ei Pilatus ergo rex es tu respondit Iesus tu dicis quia rex sum ego ego in hoc natus sum et ad hoc veni in mundum ut testimonium perhibeam veritati omnis qui est ex veritate audit meam vocem dicit ei Pilatus quid est veritas et cum hoc dixisset iterum exivit ad I

The Quantum Leap, via Wikipedia.org When I write, I often try to come up with two topics that are linked in some interesting way, and find it fun when the link is unexpected or particularly tenuous. The more unexpected the connection, the more fun it can be, particularly when I learn about something new. So, the first time I wrote about quantum computers and encryption, I discovered the band Mammút, through finding their song “Shore” while searching for more information about

Blown Away Guy – Maxell ad, via Wikipedia.org “Is it real? Or is it Memorex?” For those under fifty, the answer is probably a blank stare. For the rest, I apologize for misremembering the slogan. Imagine my surprise when I found that it was actually “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” Do others remember it that way? Is this an example of the Mandela effect? Nah – I just remembered it wrong. I need to apologize for the image as well, but this one was deliberate. I only vaguely rem

Phrack, via https://phrack.org/ Language is constantly evolving, not only by time and location, but also because of usage and changing cultural associations. When I think of the word “manifesto”, the example which leaps to mind is the Communist Manifesto, obviously due to the title, but also because it is short and clearly laid out. Manifesto is defined as “a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer”, and such statements are general