Today I Learned

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...

The great John Cleese describes the Dunning-Kruger Effect in a brilliantly concise way which is vastly entertaining. Brilliant!...

Over the decades, the way we listen to music has changed, and it’s interesting to wonder about the implications of those changes. Prior...

A farmer asked a physicist to help him figure out how to increase milk production. After gathering data and studying the problem, the...

Recently, I was listening to an old episode of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe , (actually, episode 803, dated 28-Nov-2020 ), in which...

It’s interesting that everyone needs to come up with their own “process” for writing. And, while there are certain common elements, each...

Mr. Peabody ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Peabody ) is a figure whose influence is truly incalculable. For any not familiar...

While thinking about a topic for this post, I listened to a podcast I had not previously included in my online playlist (...

I found the image above when searching for a good image of fire, and it seemed just about perfect on multiple levels. Buster Keaton (...

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...

Stevie Wonder is one of those truly great artists whose music permeates our culture. I had never actually listened to the album “Songs...

You need to come up with something, so keep it simple. Even if it starts out with only six words, you can always add more later. ...

Everyone knows what a jerk is. And everyone knows someone who is a jerk. But why? Why are some people jerks? Or rather, why do we...

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...

Yesterday, I sat down to start writing a post, and realized that I couldn’t think of anything to write about. Usually, I think of...

The film Highlander ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander_(film )) was enormously popular when it came out, as were several of the...

Recently, after I described the way I was approaching a project and its “ultimate goal”, a colleague laughed, and called me a dreamer. ...

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Chamber_of_Secrets ), there is a scene...

One of the key catch-phrases of the classic “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_t...