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December 5
Today is the anniversary of Flight 19, the five US Air Force bombers that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. They were on a training mission and reported that their compasses had stopped working and they’d gotten lost. Although they knew they were due east of Florida, where they’d taken off, for some reason they didn’t… Continue reading
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Samuel Butler
In these days of readily available AI chatbots, it’s not unusual to find speculation about whether artificial intelligence is going to “take over” the world in some usually unspecified way. This concern is older than you might expect. The Press newspaper in New Zealand published a letter in 1863 captioned Darwin among the Machines. Darwin’s… Continue reading
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I’ll have the model in rose gold, please
People remember how their neighbors act toward them and others. Particularly if you live in a village, you know who’s generous and kind, and you also know who’s a tightwad. In the case of the scrooge, you might also call them a nithing, a shut-purse, a chinch, a hayne, a nigon, or a pinchbeck. Well,… Continue reading
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December 4
As everybody knows, December 4, at least in the US, is National Cookie Day. December, of course, is well known for National Food Days; it all starts on the first, which is Eat a Red Apple Day. The next day takes a left turn away from healthy choices to be National Fritter Day. Then after… Continue reading
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Those birdbrains
Those stupid birdsare always tweeting,and now we’ve foundthey’re always eating! My humans leavea bunch of seedsfor birds — I guessthat’s what they need. And their feeder thing?It’s in my yard!Those birds ignoreme standing guard! And then they perch there,always eating.And while they eat,It’s nonstop tweeting! -Chocolate Continue reading
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The writers of December 3
Today is the birthday of two authors whose birth names you don’t know. Well, you probably don’t. The first, born December 3, 1857, is Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. You may recognize him as Joseph Conrad. The second, born December 3, 1937, is Sally Snyder, who is celebrating her 87th birthday today. You can imagine her… Continue reading
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The shadow knows
The Latin word for shadow is “umbra,” and it shows up a number of places in English. The first place it shows up, although maybe not the first place people nowadays would think of, is the actual English word “umbra.” It’s not necessarily a literal shadow; one usage of “umbra” means ghost — either a… Continue reading
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December 3
December 3, 1800, was the day that Aaron Burr nearly became the third president of the US. The 1800 election resulted in a tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson, so it was up to the House of Representatives to hold a contingent election. After the first ballot, that was tied too, and it stayed that… Continue reading
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A brief winter trip outside
My yard had a bird when I trotted out there.I chased it away so my grass could be bare,But a squirrel annoyingly chattered at meAnd it stayed where it was up too high in the tree.So I picked up my toy (I keep one outside)and I flapped it around ’til I could decideif I wanted… Continue reading
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I’m not from here
Thanks mostly to air travel, it’s not unusual to meet someone from practically any country on earth. You may have even met a Padanian. But you won’t find Padania on a map, in an atlas, or in the United Nations. That’s because it’s the name of a nation that doesn’t exist. But people really live… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer (among other things) located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. No surprise, she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity. You can also find some of my minor software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly write tiny utilities in Python.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com