Many people have heard of King Henry VIII of England, one of the biggest blowhards of history. His many, um, adventures, include starting a whole religion because the Pope wouldn’t let him end one marriage and start another, and (once he was in charge of his own church) getting married six times back when that… Continue reading

What’s up, doc? Today is the day Chuck Jones was born in 1912 — he’s the creator of Bugs Bunny, not to mention the Road Runner and his would-be nemesis Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, Marvin the Martian, and Pepé Le Pew.  When Jones was a boy, his father was a serial entrepreneur, and not… Continue reading

Watch your back. Watch the skies. Watch out for…well, just about everybody. That seems to be the main lesson from A Song of Ice and Fire. That’s the book series that inspired the Game of Thrones series, and it was written by George R. R. Martin, whose 75th birthday is today.  Martin, whose “Rs” stand… Continue reading

We don’t usually notice the fairly mundane objects around us that are absolutely essential — to the point that hardly anything would function without them — but seem to be just “available” and ubiquitous. Like nuts and bolts. They’re not branded (okay, some are), and although there are some variations, it’s very easy to find… Continue reading

We’re in the middle of a boom in rocketry; sending satellites and people into orbit — and potentially beyond — is no longer just a thing that huge governments can do; there are lots of entities and organizations involved now. The whole endeavor can be traced back to the founders of modern rocketry. One of… Continue reading

Bentley has for years been one of the world’s top manufacturers of ridiculously expensive luxury cars. But the company is actually based on trains, motorcycles, and their original product: racing cars.  Walter Own Bentley was born September 16, 1888 in London. His family was well off, although not wealthy, so although he attended a private… Continue reading

In 1919 William Butler Yeats wrote The Second Coming, including the lines “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold,” and “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” Sounds a lot like the present day, doesn’t it? But Yeats was describing the world of a century ago. The conspiracy… Continue reading

Nearly all of these Born Today bios are based on Wikipedia, which has a page listing notable births for every day of the year. There are always dozens of well-remembered people who were born on any given day. Nobel prize laureates, heroes, national rulers, great artists and writers — they’re all there. But there are… Continue reading

Europe has Leonardo da Vinci; North America has…Oliver Evans? Maybe so; I’ll explain. Oliver Evans was born September 13, 1755 in Delaware, which at the time was not a state but a colony, and mostly wilderness. He didn’t receive any formal education, but was taught the basics, probably at home. He was apprenticed to a… Continue reading

Surely you’re familiar with curry, a delicious way of preparing food. And it’s possible to curry favor, if you’re in the sphere of some influential person who could do something to benefit you. But if you’ve ever done any computer programming, maybe you’ve run into a situation where you have a function that takes several… Continue reading