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Groucho Marx? David Bellamy? Max Miller? Monty Python? George Little? Barney Horrigan? Anonymous? Picture of Auguste Rodin’s 1882 sculpture “The Kiss” Question for Quote Investigator: In 1979 the Bellamy Brothers released a popular country music song with a humorous title: If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me? This line has been attributed to the famous comedian Groucho Marx, but I have not been …

A gem of an educational show from Japan about design.

Quite possibly the dumbest meme in the bitcoin calendar is coming around again — so we’ve written it up. [Amy Castor] To understand the “halvening,” you need to know about two things: The practical problems for bitcoin miners when half their income suddenly vanishes; A whole mythology of inane gibberish. Your subscriptions keep this site going. Sign up today!

Success! I've been using Helix on my Chromebook for almost a year and I was finally able to get editor themes working correctly. Helix has a great selection of themes but I was never able to get them working on this little machine. I had to install from source, which was a little dicey given how small the hard drive is and how low-power mid-range Chromebooks are in general. The …

I didn't go to school at MIT, but I've played in the MIT Mystery Hunt. So I've sent in some thank-you money, and thus landed on their alumni fundraising mailing list. They just sent me a postcard about their upcoming 24-Hour Challenge fundraiser; the postcard got my attention because it had a crossword, albeit a sparse "vocabulary" crossword emphasizing MIT trivia. I didn't go to school at MIT, but I've …

July 2023 Although this walk was to be almost entirely on roads, the road on the east shore of Loch Fyne are more minor than the busy A83 I had to follow for much of the west shore, so I am hoping today’s walk will be quieter and I can focus more on the scenery and surroundings than the traffic. The downside of being on quieter roads is there tends …

Previous: First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Jan. ’23 Welcome to the February issue of First Amend This! This publication provides an insider look at issues affecting the Idaho Department of Correction community. If you wish to assist this effort, share the link, copy and paste, or print and send this issue to another. Loved ones … Continue reading "First Amend This! An IDOC Newsletter, Feb. ’24" The post First …

Another luminary of mid-twentieth-century conservatism, Russell Kirk, said, “Until human beings are tied together by some common faith, and share certain moral principles, they prey upon one another.” To which three responses are required. First, religion can be socially useful without being true. Second, human beings can share many ethical principles without sharing the same faith, or having any faith. Third, people who share a faith or moral principles frequently …

This is a very brief example to spice up the measures of central tendency lecture.There is a game show in Germany, and one of the rounds of the game show is performing a perfect median split on food. OF COURSE, IT IS A BAVARIAN HOT PRETZEL.The "splitting championship" game is part of a larger video game. Here is the YouTube version and here is the Reddit version, with more deets …

"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that laws requiring crippled encryption and extensive data retention violate the European Convention on Human Rights." This renders some of the EU's own proposed legislation illegal. More importantly, client-side scanning and backdoors become illegal in themselves, making it harder for vendors from anywhere to include those features, lest they fall foul of the law with EU users. #Technology [Link]

Abiding by the first rule of Fight Club, one might argue that discussing its underlying messages should be off-limits. But nevertheless, it’s ironic that we often overlook a topic so relevant and widespread, especially now, 25 years after the film first hit the screens. At the start of the film, Edward Norton’s character (the Narrator) is a disenfranchised white-collar worker suffering from insomnia and absorbed by consumerism. He found this …

Just saw Helena Deland on the last night of her tour. Absolutely stunning gig. After a beautiful, delicate set from Clara Mann, they came on and blew us away. The band were so tight and were clearly enjoying themselves. Someone passed Helena a piece of paper with a request for a song that they don’t usually play; after a nod from all the band members, and a quick errand to …

My name is Rachel, and I am currently the Service Design Lead at Basildon Council in Essex. I am also a PhD Researcher in Service Co-design. This means working with service beneficiaries and the workforce to design a service to meet future needs and life events. I live with a disability that affects my immunity and mobility and this has really changed my approach to design (and re-design) of services. …

C. and I left the desert sooner than expected because an ideal apartment opened up down the hall from her parents. At first, I did not want to leave Vegas. Not so soon. Then I thought about how I would move heaven and earth to live down the hall from my parents if they were still here. A different timeline, perhaps. I like my in-laws. They taught me to play …

Ninety percent of the ads I see on Facebook are either for shoes (especially with wide sizes), electric cars, or glasses, especially sunglasses and reading glasses. That’s because I’m interested in those things, and keep clicking on attractive ads. What can I say? It keeps me off the street. The other day, I clicked on a shoe ad and this appeared: I’ve been on the elusive trail of “trainers” (BrE …