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Humans Unleashed
Signs, poles and treesall make me go ‘sheesh;’those things can cause problemswhen humans are leashed. We go on a walk;I’m ahead; they’re in backbut basic leash management’ssomething they lack. You’d think it was simple.and I sure have tried,but when there’s a postthey will pick the wrong side. So I have to fix itand come back… Continue reading
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Humorous, but not very funny
When you’re feeling hopeful or optimistic about something you might say you’re feeling “sanguine” about it. If you’re like most people, you probably wouldn’t, but the point is that you could. “Sanguine” is a reasonably common word, although it doesn’t generally pop up in everyday conversation in most circles. But it has a pretty unusual… Continue reading
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OMG Look What They Found!
Darrell Huff wrote How to Lie with Statistics way back in 1954. It’s not just about lying with statistics; it’s about completely bungling your interpretation of what you think you’ve noticed. Some people even write books based on that kind of bungling. I haven’t read Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant, but… Continue reading
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The little devils
An “imp” is a small devil or demon, and in modern usage usually means a small child engaged in some sort of mischief. “Imp” is from Old English, and first appeared in a book from about 900, Pastoral Care: “Sio halige gesomnung Godes folces, ðæt eardað on æppeltunum, ðonne hie wel begað hira plantan &… Continue reading
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Attention
A set of connected connections. “What, the internet requires less attention? Yes, because it demands so little of us intellectually and appeals so powerfully to our feelings.” “Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights.”… Continue reading
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Clifford Cocks
It’s not as unusual as you might think for an idea or invention to arise more than once, completely independently, even at roughly the same time. That’s the case with public-key encryption, which is widely used today. The “s” in “https” that precedes website URLs stands for “secure,” and depends on that kind of encryption.… Continue reading
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You are not free
You are not free. At the very least, you’re nowhere near as free as you like to think you are. What it even means to be free isn’t really all that clear. The things you are free to do depend to some extent on where you live. In today’s world, you live in a “nation”… Continue reading
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Up in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a guy with wings!
Ancient myths and legends from many cultures include creatures like the Greek minotaur, which was a man’s body with a bull’s head. There were various Egyptian gods that were similar amalgams; Anubis had the head of a jackal and Bast had a cat’s head. Satyrs are part human and part goat, and so on. All… Continue reading
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Connections
It’s not documents (books, articles, stories, notes, posts) that are important, even when they encapsulate fantastically important, incisive ideas. It’s the connections among and between documents that are the most important. Browsing the web is valuable because of hypertext. Ted Nelson coined that word back in 1965, when there were only a handful of real-world… Continue reading
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The Hackneyed Hackneys of Hackney
If you hear the word “hackney” today it’s nearly always in the context of some idea that’s tired or played out. A “hackneyed expression” is one that’s simply overused; a cliché. You can have a “hackneyed excuse” (your dog ate your homework AGAIN?), hackneyed speeches (“We offer our thoughts and prayers…”), and even people can… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
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