Today I Learned

Cover Art, Astounding Science Fiction, October 1941, via Wikipedia.org One of my favourite stories by Robert A Heinlein , was actually written by Anson MacDonald. Early in his career, Heinlein wrote under several pseudonyms , but only one of them was “obvious”. I’m not aware of any way to link the names Lyle Monroe, John Riverside, Caleb Saunders, or Simon York to Heinlein. In contrast, knowing that Robert Anson Heinlein was, at that time, married to Leslyn MacDonald made “An

42 and Douglas Adams – Numberphile, via YouTube I suppose it’s not surprising that I’ve mentioned The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy...

Life of Brian – “I’m not”, via YouTube Even though I’ve seen it about a dozen times over the years, there’s always something new to learn...

elconomeno@email.com , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Once upon a time, there was a hacker called “XXXX”. Really! Well, sorta. This is a...

Generated by RG, via Microsoft Designer, 2025 “Trust everybody, but cut the cards.” Finley Peter Dunne Trust is a strange thing. I knew I...

Survivorman Logo, via YouTube The TV show Survivor is described as a “ reality-competition ”, but it never struck me as realistic, and I...

MAMMÚT Everyone has heard the stereotype of the older person complaining about the “new music” younger people listen to, and we can all...

It’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...

“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...

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 ...

In the late 1980’s I liked to collect “taglines” to include in my interactions with people. While these included many “pithy” statements...

I’ve heard a number of people say that they “don’t like X”, only to discover that their only exposure has been some “pop culture” version...

The phrase “full of sound sound and fury, signifying nothing” is part of one of the most famous soliloquies in the English language. It...

Risk ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_%28game%29 ) is one of those games that seems to endure. It’s a simple game, which is probably...

We have endless opportunities to learn, if only we take them. I recently commented on the survival of the learner (...