Why Do We Have Grass Lawns
Published on 17 Apr 2017 In this video: Maintaining the perfect lawn takes a lot of work. There’s mowing, fertilizing, aerating, and watering. Having a trimmed green field leading up to your front...
View ArticleWho’s afraid of Mrs. Grundy?
In my family, the name “Mrs. Grundy” was used to describe someone of rigidly conformative taste and judgement (and keenly censorious bent). I’d always assumed it was just a family notion or perhaps a...
View ArticleQotD: The dangers of career “dualization”
This concept [of dualization] applies much more broadly than just drugs and colleges. I sometimes compare my own career path, medicine, to that of my friends in computer programming. Medicine is very...
View ArticleTop 10 Reasons the Byzantine Empire Was Among the Most Successful in History
Published on 2 May 2017 You’d see a lot of changes when looking at a map of present day Europe and comparing it to a 30 year old one. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic States were all part of...
View ArticleRemembering the Six-Day War
With the 50th anniversary coming up in a few weeks, Jerrold L. Sobel provides a retrospective on the Arab-Israeli war of 1967: For those of us alive during those daunting days in May 1967 leading up to...
View ArticleVenezuela’s American “useful idiots”
Marian L. Tupy on the American apologists for the ongoing economic and humanitarian disaster unfolding in Venezuela, thanks to that country’s embrace of socialism: … all socialist countries eventually...
View ArticleThe Ally From The Far East – Japan in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
Published on 22 May 2017 Japan’s participation in World War 1 is an often overlooked part of their history – even in Japan itself. Their service as one of the members of the Entente marked the climax...
View ArticleQotD: The evil of political correctness
PC [political correctness] represents, in essence, the institutionalisation of dishonesty, of deception, where people are given carte blanche to behave in an immoral way — ‘erect those fences, release...
View ArticleVintage Style Storage Boxes w/ Splines
Published on 7 Dec 2015 I wanted to make really nice storage boxes to organize my art supplies so I went with cedar and maple splines. Related posts: French cleat follow-up Why some vintage dates...
View Article“I don’t know if Lou would be cracking up about this or crying because it’s...
Reactions to the University of Guelph student association’s characterizing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” as transphobic: Friends of the late Lou Reed responded on Saturday with disbelief to a...
View ArticleESR presents Open Adventure
Eric S. Raymond recently was entrusted with the original code for ADVENT, and he’s put it up on gitlab for anyone to access: Colossal Cave Adventure was the origin of many things; the text adventure...
View ArticleWill it be more Mourning Sickness, or will it be anger this time?
Brendan O’Neill on the reactions to the Manchester bomb attack on Monday after a pop concert: After the terror, the platitudes. And the hashtags. And the candlelit vigils. And they always have the same...
View ArticleQotD: Lies about the past
It has long been said that the truth will set you free. This is often true, even when that freedom is the bleak and dry eyed horror of knowing how wrong things can go. (As in, say, studying...
View ArticleHow Does Glue Work? (feat. VSauce) – James May’s Q&A (Ep 9) – Head Squeeze
Published on 28 Feb 2013 Michael Stevens from Vsauce makes a guest appearance with James May to discuss how glue actually works. James May’s Q&A: With his own unique spin, James May asks and...
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Teddy Bridgewater returns to Vikings OTAs, sparking more questions
To the surprise and delight of many Vikings fans, the team posted a short video to their social media accounts on Tuesday afternoon, showing quarterback Teddy Bridgewater taking part in some passing...
View ArticleDangerous railway practices of the past
On Facebook, the New England, Berkshire & Western (“an HO scale layout created by the Rensselaer Model Railroad Society, which is a student club on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in...
View ArticleWords & Numbers: Government Can’t Stop Creative Destruction
Published on 24 May 2017 Technology doesn’t just change things, it utterly destroys things. And that’s just fine. It happens so often that people barely even notice when it does. Think about all the...
View ArticleQotD: The coming of the sexbots
Recently I saw online a documentary on sex robots. The reporteress, a short-haired woman seething with quiet indignation, Viewed With Alarm the very idea. Progress is rapid on these love assistants,...
View ArticlePuzzle of Growth: Rich Countries and Poor Countries
Published on 16 Feb 2016 Throughout this section of the course, we’ve been trying to solve a complicated economic puzzle — why are some countries rich and others poor? There are various factors at...
View ArticleA noteworthy historical “Oh, shit!” moment
At Catallaxy Files, a guest post on a most butt-puckering “Oh, shit!” from long ago: My favourite Oh Shit moment of all time occurred a while ago. On the 4th of September 401 BC to be exact. At dawn....
View ArticleToronto-London high speed train plan –“many Ontarians wouldn’t trust the...
Chris Selley discusses the weak-but-barely-plausible high speed train plans announced by the Ontario government the other day: High-speed rail is expensive — to build, certainly, and more on that...
View ArticleGerman Bombers Over Britain – Arab Revolt On The Advance I THE GREAT WAR Week...
Published on 25 May 2017 This week 100 years ago, Germany is flying concentrated bomber attacks with multiple Gotha bombers on British cities – causing more damage than any Zeppelin raid before. In...
View ArticleA Brief History of Politicians Body-Slamming Journalists
Published on 25 May 2017 In the twilight hours of a special election to replace Montana’s lone congressman, Republican hopeful Greg Gianforte reportedly “body slammed” and punched a Guardian reporter...
View ArticleQotD: When international sport replaced war between the Great Powers
I do not know if there was a meeting, in about 1961, of a subcommittee of the Bilderberg Commission (itself a characteristic consequence of the Great Change) at which it was resolved that, what with...
View ArticleMary Anning – Princess of Paleontology – Extra History
Published on 22 Apr 2017 “She sells seashells by the seashore.” Many have heard this old English rhyme, but few know the true story of the woman who inspired it. Her name was Mary Anning, and she did...
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Canada’s hollow army
Thanks to a post at Army.ca, here is the rough outline of the NATO battle group that Canada will be leading in Latvia later this summer (oddly lacking in attached artillery support): … the Canadian-led...
View ArticleTerry Teachout – Building the Wall “is a piece of pornography written in...
Sir Humphrey Appleby reminds us that “plays attacking the government make the second most boring theatrical evenings ever invented. The most boring are plays praising the government”. After attending a...
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Currently reading
You could say that I don’t follow a particularly chronological pattern to my reading list. Pax Romana, Adrian GoldsworthyAD69: Emperors, Armies & Anarchy, Nic FieldsAll Propaganda is Lies:...
View ArticleQotD: Nostalgia
Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. Couples feel closer and look happier when they’re...
View ArticleHow to make a Half-lap Dovetail | Paul Sellers
Published on 18 May 2017 The half-lap dovetail is possibly the most common of all the dovetails used today. It is used for the front corners of drawers, and anywhere where you want to use a dovetail...
View ArticleThe Handmaid’s Tale, is indeed timely, but not the way they mean
In the Los Angeles Times earlier this month, Charlotte Allen discusses the “timeliness” of Hulu’s TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale: I’ve lost count of the articles I’ve read...
View ArticleIndochina – Cyprus – Puerto Rico I OUT OF THE TRENCHES
Published on 27 May 2017 What do Indochina, Cyprus and Puerto Rico have in common? They are all featured in our newest episode of Out of The Trenches where Indy answers all your questions about World...
View ArticleBritain’s general election –“Except for Europe, the contest is between an...
Sean Gabb is holding his nose and voting Tory this time around, but he’s not happy about it: For the avoidance of doubt, I still intend to vote Conservative in this dreadful election. And, if Labour...
View ArticleMaxime Bernier falls just short of victory in federal Conservative leader race
He was defeated on the thirteenth ballot by Andrew Scheer (who?) Andrew Scheer emerged as Conservative leader after 13 ballots on Saturday evening, a surprise victory but one with which most Tories...
View ArticleQotD: Western intellectuals’ anti-Western bias
Much of the West’s intelligentsia is persistently in love with anything anti-Western (and especially anti-American), an infatuation that has given a great deal of aid and comfort to tyrants and...
View ArticleFalklands War – Argentine Perspective – An Inevitable Defeat? (Guerra de las...
Published on 12 Apr 2016 The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas) in 1982 as seen by many as an inevitable defeat for Argentina, but taking a closer look at the preparations or better the lack of...
View ArticleWho the heck is Andrew Scheer?
I admit, I wasn’t really paying attention to the federal Conservative leadership race … I’d blithely assumed that Mad Max would win … so I didn’t pay much attention to the other candidates (other than...
View ArticleMark Steyn on the career of Roger Moore
On the weekend, Mark Steyn posted an article discussing the late Sir Roger’s pre-Bond roles: Roger Moore played 007 in seven Bond films – although it seemed like more at the time. He was a rare...
View ArticleUsing Nigerian spam techniques to build your audience and reliably broadcast...
An amusing set of tweets from Popehat: Okay. Theory: @louisemensch and @truefactsstated are using a Nigerian email technique. To wit: weeding out non-imbeciles. /1 — PopehatWitchHunt (@Popehat) May 20,...
View ArticleOn this day in 1453
In the Smithsonian Magazine in 2008, Fergus M. Bordewich described the events of 29 May, 1453: In the 11th century, the Byzantines suffered the first in a series of devastating defeats at the hands of...
View ArticleQotD: The uses of IQ
Suppose that the question at issue regards individuals: “Given two 11 year olds, one with an IQ of 110 and one with an IQ of 90, what can you tell us about the differences between those two children?”...
View ArticleThe Disgusting Contents of Worcestershire Sauce (and Why It s Called That)
Published on 27 Mar 2017 In this video: Worcestershire sauce, sometimes known as “Worcester sauce” is a savoury sauce that is often added to meat and fish dishes or, if you like your alcoholic...
View ArticleThe Belisarius fixation in SF&F
Jo Walton wonders why an otherwise obscure general of an otherwise obscure empire appears so often in fantasy and science fiction: I once wrote jokingly here that there are only three plots, and they...
View ArticleThe unfriendly border
I’ve generally had little trouble crossing the US/Canadian border, but I’ve perhaps been quite lucky. An old friend of mine recently was turned back from the border crossing at Port Huron and had an...
View ArticleCroatia in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special
Published on 29 May 2017 Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War 1 and Croats were just one of the many ethnicities within the Habsburg Empire that went to to war in 1914....
View ArticleQotD: Capitalism
Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls in return...
View ArticleThe Wood Whisperer 269 – Pet Steps
Published on 16 Sep 2016 For FREE plans and additional details, head to http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/pet-steps/ Welcome to the Honda Ridgeline Saturday Project series produced in partnership...
View Article“JFK before the speechwriters got to him is far more interesting”
Mark Steyn celebrates what would have been JFK’s 100th birthday by looking at the pre-Camelot JFK’s life: Jack’s early life was certainly privileged but not idyllic. The family patriarch, Joe, is an...
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Stormtrooper gear
In The Register, Gavin Clarke talks about “inexpensive” replicas of the original Star Wars stormtrooper helmets and other gear: Original Stormtrooper Hero Helmet from Shepperton Design Studios +...
View ArticleIntroduction to Consumer Choice
Published on 30 May 2017 Everyday, you make tons of decisions about consumption. Your choices about what and how much of a good to buy are influenced by the laws of supply and demand. These choices...
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