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For everyone, 1913
5th avenue omnibus, New York City, 1913.[1] On that note, I have written about motor buses before – follow the link for some macaronic fun. The Old Wolf has spoken. [1] “Omnibus” is the dative plural...
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To the Bravery of the Swiss – The Lion of Lucerne
Even though I lived in Switzerland for around 5 months, I never had a chance to see the “Lion of Lucerne,” a stunning monument to the Swiss Guard who perished in 1792 during the French Revolution, when...
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Frozen: The masterpiece, the controversies.
Well, after a long wait for Frozen to come to the local budget theater, we finally saw it last night. Heartwarming, uplifting, technically brilliant, visually appealing, musically stunning, I left the...
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We are a legitimate business!
Have a look at this bit of processed meat that appeared in my inbox yesterday: We are looking for some people that are interested in working from their home on a part or full-time basis.If you want to...
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The Many Origins of the English Language
Stumbled across an amazing interactive chart showing the various influences which affected the development of the English language over time, and felt it was worth sharing. The picture above is a...
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An open letter to a blog spammer.
Thanks to antifraudnews for the image. I’ve commented multiple times on the kinds of spam comments that appear in this blog on a regular basis. I just got another comment from one of my “regulars.”...
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Tongan Television
Working in an international office can be an educational experience. For 22 years I associated with people from all over the world – in addition to Europeans, we had colleagues from many countries in...
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The pendulum has swung
Scott Adams is funny. Dilbert is funny. For whatever reason you choose to come up with, Adams has his finger squarely on the pulse of the business world, and wastes no time lampooning anything and...
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Wham, bam, tack Madam!
A recent article at BBC (and reported elsewhere as well) indicates that evidence for double-asteroid impacts on earth is growing more credible. According to astronomers, around 15% of asteroids are...
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Building Spiral Turbines, ca. 1930
Fibonacci Turbines. Images found at the German National Archives. For what it’s worth, the Nautilus is not a perfect golden spiral, but comes close in its properties. See more at The Golden Number....
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The Joy of being Different.
A lot has been written, both in print media and on the internet, about the importance of being different, or simply being yourself. My first encounter with this philosophy came in high school and we...
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New York, 1865
This photo of lower Hudson Street was taken by Marcus Ormsby in 1865, to showcase the John Peake pharmacy. It’s a beautiful capture of day-to-day life in New York at the close of the civil war. Some...
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Reaching for the brass ring
In modern English, “grabbing the brass ring” or getting a “shot at the brass ring” means to go for the gold, or to strive for the best possible reward. The phrase has been found in dictionaries as...
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Alcohol: joyous, insidious, confusing, and funny.
“That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if...
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Another Scam Phone Prefix: +4487
Image from Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services This one was new to me. It’s long been known that phone numbers which begin with 4470, or 44 070, are designed to look like United Kingdom numbers, but...
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Notice to Appear in Court (Scam/Malware)
(Thanks to Techsrus for the image) My cubicle neighbor (at the job we just both got laid off from yesterday, but that’s another story) showed me a couple of emails he had gotten in his Gmail account –...
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Duke Ellington and band members playing baseball in front of their segregated...
Originally spotted this at /r/historyporn, but the original source is from Shorpy. Some interesting comments from both sites: Commenter jsmakbkr mentioned, “On the left in the blazer is William “Cat”...
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TV: It’s all smoke and mirrors
A humorous item from the past: If you’ve ever wondered what’s actually on a letter or document that someone in a TV show is reading, here’s a good example from “Leave it to Beaver” (Season 2: Episode 6...
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Telling a story with one picture
I saw this photo on reddit today, and then discovered that it’s been shared hundreds of times. I have not found an original source, nor a definitive description, but the words most associated with the...
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Hannibal Lecter… Musician.
The things we learn. Seriously. It appears that Sir Anthony Hopkins was a musician and composer before he was an actor; his piece “And the Waltz Goes On” was composed in November of 1964, but was never...
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