I may be unusual, but I often think about how language changes naturally and unnaturally. Sometimes, it evolves, and sometimes it changes by the actions of individuals with powerful ideas. The above could be written: I may bee unushual, but I often þink abowt how langwidj chanjiz naturaly and unnaturaly. Sumtymz, it evolvez, and sumtymz it chanjez by the akshun ov individualz wiþ powerful ideaz. þis may bee mor difficult to reed, but þat myt bee a result of familiarity…
I am addicted to caffeine. A lot of people say that, but I want to explain what it really means, and how I came to avoid caffeine altogether. Over the long weekend that just passed in the US, my wife and I went glamping. Glamping means multiple different things to different people. But on this occasion, it meant a wood-framed, canvas-walled building with an internal bathroom, two bedrooms and a kitchenette. It’s camping without the inconvenience of traipsing to the…
If you are using Linux and are relatively new to it, you might have come across kind and helpful people telling you to type a command like: Or something similar. Though this is really helpful, I sometimes worry that people do not know what the command does, and so they do not really learn how to use these features generally. They just learn how to resolve this very specific problem. So here’s a little bit of information about the command…
My wife and I like to buy books. We probably like to buy books more than we spend time reading them… which is weird. But I recently read one of the books we bought solely on the basis of its title, “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera. Here’s my short review: With just one modification to today’s world, Adam Silvera explores friendship, love, and the meaning of life in a compelling and moving way. They Both Die…
Correction (November 14, 2022): It has now been established that ‘Sans Forgetica’ does not aid recall (Source), so please know that what was written below is now not supported by the evidence. In an earlier post, I described how the font, Lexend Deca, was designed to make it easier to read some material. Since that post, this entire website has utilized that font (so long as your browser and operating system support WOFF files) and this post has hard-coded adherence…
This is not a political blog, but there are some truths that are self-evident or exposed by scientific research. With that in mind, here are some thoughts about how the United States Constitution needs to be changed. The bold green text could be inserted, with amendment, into a new constitution. The text below that green text explains the reasoning. Minority protection All persons are born with equal opportunity, and should retain equality of opportunity as far as nature allows. The…
Sometimes the thing that seems obvious, is just not worth the effort. Means testing is often the case for this. Consider: Medicaid and Medicare in the USA cost the same as the whole of the UK’s healthcare system, even though they only cover select groups*. Similarly, free college is not worth means-testing. This is only a short article because I wanted to draw your attention to this interesting piece by Christopher Keelty: On free college for billionaires. Source of claims…
In 1843, Ada Lovelace wrote a book. Ostensibly it was a translation of some notes of a lecture by Charles Babbage. The Italian author, whose notes needed to be translated, were focused on the mathematical capabilities of Babbage’s machine. Lovelace – and only Lovelace – grasped the power of Babbage’s machine to change society [1]; to introduce an Information Age. The world in which we now live – in the first half of the twenty first century – was imagined…
Despite both being English-speaking, western countries, there are several differences between the UK and the USA. One of them is how schools are organized. It is surprising that two countries that should be so similar, could diverge so thoroughly. To celebrate the United States’ 244th independence day, let’s review some of the differences. One of the most obvious differences is how years [US English: grades] are numbered. Year/grade numbering: Child age* UK post-1990 Year number UK pre-1990 Year number UK…