Music and the Fabric of Space and Time
Music, more than other forms of art, is tied to place and time. We can see this best in teenagers. Each generation of teens rejects its parents’ music. When you’re 14, your musical tastes...
Category: Nonfiction
Lost Letters: The Claudian Letters
Last week, we looked at some of the letters dropped from the Greek Alphabet — letters that never even made it into Latin. This week, we’ll look at the Claudian Letters, three new letters...
Lilliput, Excel and Arabic Numerals
Our numbers are backwards. I’m talking about the Arabic Numerals we use everyday. I realized it one day while using Microsoft Excel. Type any letter into a blank spreadsheet, and it will align to...
Lost Letters: The Greek Alphabet
Why does the English Alphabet have 26 letters? There’s nothing magical or important about that number. In fact, there’s nothing special about the 26 letters we ended up with. It’s just an accident of...
Idiocracy and the Fall of Rome
In Mike Judge’s movie “Idiocracy”, an average man from the 21st century wakes up 500 years in the future, only to find that he’s the smartest man in the world. This is based on...
The Dumbing Down of the History Channel
Growing up, I was a big fan of the History Channel. (Yeah, I was a weird kid.) Back then, they mostly played World War II documentaries. They also had more quirky programs, like shows...
The Pontiff: Older Than Jesus
Everyone knows the Pope is old, but so is the office. The Papacy traces its roots back to St. Peter himself, but it turns out the institute is even older than that. In fact,...
Food Deserts and Organic Superstores
One thing you see more and more nowadays is a separation of healthy and unhealthy food. Modern slums have become “food deserts”, where opportunities to eat healthy food are far and few between. What...
Dying Days of the Republic
Sometimes it feels like we are in the dying days of the republic. Have previous generations felt so pessimistic about America’s future? I don’t think so. While I think that a democracy is fragile...
The United States of Dune
Frank Herbert’s Dune is one of the greatest works of science fiction ever written. While it’s not as popular as Star Wars and Star Trek, it’s every bit as engrossing. One of the things...
