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Ross and Norris McWhirter
In an event never before matched, Norris and Ross McWhirter were born August 12, 1925, in Middlesex, England. The twins were the sun of William McWhirter, who was the editor of the Sunday Pictorial newspaper, and later founded a newspaper chain, the Northcliffe Newspapers. In 1943, despite being just 14 years old, both twins volunteered Continue reading
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Just call Lyft
The German inventor Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn came up with a device, in 1891, that measured the distance of a short trip in a carriage. It took only 8 years for Gottlieb Daimler, another German inventor, to install the device — a taximeter — in the Daimler Victoria, which was the world’s first real taxicab Continue reading
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August 12
It’s August 12, the Glorious Twelfth in England, where it’s the opening day of grouse hunting season. Except when the 12th falls on a Sunday. Then they open the season on Monday because it’s illegal to shoot birds on Sundays there. It’s not clear to me whether Sundays are okay for shooting things other than Continue reading
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August 11
If you do the (tedious, but straightforward) math converting a base 20 numbering system to base 10, then count backwards, then interpolate different calendar systems (which have changed regularly over the centuries), you eventually arrive at August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. Exactly 5,135 years ago today. Technically that’s the “proleptic” Gregorian calendar, Continue reading
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Party, games
Around the mid 1600s somebody in Scotland thought it would be fun to organize a group into two teams, get a ball, give everybody a curved stick to hit the ball with, and make a game of it. It was a little like field hockey, but that’s not what they called it. What they did Continue reading
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August 10
August 10 provides a good object lesson in how fast the world works now compared to the 1700s. It was July 4, 1776 that the British colonies in North America issued the Declaration of Independence. But the anniversary of the news finally reaching England is today, August 10. The phrase “breaking news” didn’t even exist Continue reading
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The vile file
In ancient Rome they used the word “vilis” to mean worthless or cheap. In the mid 1200s the word, which had become part of Old French, entered English (Middle English at the time) as “vile.” In English it came to mean worse than just lack of economic value; it acquired a moral aspect and tended Continue reading
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August 9
On August 9, 1899, Pamela Lyndon Goff was born in Queensland, Australia. She grew up to be an actress, and used the stage name “Pamela Lyndon Travers” because her family objected to her acting career. She was pretty good, though, and joined a traveling Shakespearean acting company in Australia. From there she moved to England, Continue reading
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A mint-condition, late-model castle
If you mention a “surprise” without a lot of other context, most people take it with a generally positive implication. They might think of a gift, a party, or something else that appears unexpectedly. But the main point is that nowadays a surprise is often a good thing. Surprisingly enough, this was not always the Continue reading
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Paul Dirac
People love a good prediction. One of the most important features of a scientific theory is that it can predict the results of experiments nobody has yet performed. Even though there isn’t much of a testable theory behind it, lots of people still read daily astrology columns— and a finalist for yesterday’s birthday person was 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 Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but 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.
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