If you live in California, or visit, you might at some point find yourself in Tarzana. It’s part of Los Angeles, and it’s named after a fictional character: Tarzan of the Apes. In the early 20th century, Tarzan was incredibly popular, and the author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created the character, lived in that part… Continue reading

You may have heard of the Stirling engine. It’s a pretty fascinating device; all it needs to operate is two areas fairly close together (or that can be connected) that are at different temperatures. It’s also called a “hot air” engine, and although Robert Stirling invented the modern version in 1816 (and gave it his… Continue reading

You may have heard of McLaren cars; they’re ridiculously expensive, ridiculously fast, and probably ridiculous in a couple of other ways too. They come from the McLaren company, which originally just built racing cars because Bruce McLaren, who founded it, was a racing driver.  McLaren was born in 1937 in New Zealand and probably got… Continue reading

—fade in on a restaurant in Hollywood in 1957. Two men in business suits are having lunch together— Lane: Say, you remember that guy? Lasky: I remember a lotta guys.  Lane: I’m talking about the great one, something about McGinty. Lasky: Yeah, I know the one. I didn’t know him when McGinty did though. Lane:… Continue reading

I had hoped to get one of the creations of today’s birthday celebrant to narrate this piece, but unfortunately, even after running it through Google Translate, all I got was “Pika! Pika! Pika!” (and so forth). So I’ll have to do it myself. Today is the 58th birthday of the creator of Pokémon: Satoshi Tajiri. … Continue reading

If you peruse the art of Man Ray, who was born August 27, 1890, you’ll see things like sewing machines, flat irons, needles, pins, thread, and other thing having to do with sewing and tailoring. Man Ray was painter, photographer, collagist, and worked in some harder-to-define media as well. He worked in Paris, for the… Continue reading

It’s well known nowadays that combustion — fire, for one — is a process requiring oxygen. It doesn’t need any phlogiston to work, although for a century before the 1770s, scientists thought “phlogiston” was some sort of substance, and if it was included in another substance (like wood), that’s what enabled burning. It’s thanks to… Continue reading

You probably remember Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer from the 1500s who created a vast catalog of amazingly accurate (for the 1500s) astronomical observations. But you might now know that his younger sister, Sophia Brahe (who was born on August 24) was his research partner and shared a great deal of the work (but usually… Continue reading

These days all you hear about political leanings is, for the most part, “conservative,” “progressive,” and the occasional “liberal.” A hundred years ago we weren’t so lexically starved. Take Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikenbaum, for example. He was born August 23, 1882, and is usually known by his pen name, Volin. He wasn’t just a “conservative” or… Continue reading

I’m not entirely sure today is really August 22; it could be some sort of satirical comment on the month of August or the number 2. I can’t quite figure out which, but here’s my evidence: not one, but two famous satirical writers were born this day, many years apart, on different continents.  The American… Continue reading