October 15, 2019
Rose Mary Woods (1917–2005) was Richard Nixon’s secretary from his days in Congress in 1951, through the end of his political career. Before H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman became the operators of Nixon’s presidential campaign, Woods was Nixon’s gatekeeper.
Fiercely loyal to Nixon, Woods claimed responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 181⁄2 minute gap in a June 20, 1972, audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred—which depended upon her stretching to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the ‘Rose Mary Stretch’)—was met with considerable ridicule. Continue reading →
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October 8, 2019
‘Hoist with his own petard’ is a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ that has become proverbial.
The phrase’s meaning is literally that the bomb-maker (a “petard” is a small explosive device) is blown up (‘hoisted’ off the ground) by his own bomb, and indicates an ironic reversal, or poetic justice. Continue reading →
Posted in Art, Language, War |
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October 2, 2019
Rocket mail is the delivery of mail by rocket or missile. The rocket lands by deploying an internal parachute upon arrival. It has been attempted by various organizations in many different countries, with varying levels of success. It has never become widely seen as being a viable option for delivering mail, due to the cost of the schemes and numerous failures.
The collection of philatelic material (‘stamps’) used for (and depicting) rocket mail is part of a specialist branch of aerophilately known as astrophilately. Continue reading →
Posted in Technology, War, World |
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September 24, 2019
The firehose of falsehood is a propaganda technique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (such as news and social media) without regard for truth or consistency.
Since 2014, when it was successfully used by Russia during its annexation of Crimea, this model has been adopted by other governments and political movements around the world. Continue reading →
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September 23, 2019
A punchline concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure: set-up, premise, punch line. In a broader sense, ‘punchline’ can also refer to the unexpected and funny conclusion of any performance, situation or story.
The exact origin of the term is unknown, though the classic three-part joke format was well-established in Vaudeville by the beginning of the 20th century. Merriam-Webster dictionary pegs the first use in 1921. It has also been argued that the term’s origin is related to the British weekly magazine ‘Punch.’ Continue reading →
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September 17, 2019
The walking truck or Cybernetic Walking Machine was an experimental quadruped walking vehicle created by General Electric in 1965. It was designed by engineer Ralph Mosher to help infantry carry equipment over rough terrain. It alternatively bore the name of ‘CAM,’ an acronym for ‘cybernetic anthropomorphous machine,’ as seen in a segment of the Walter Cronkite–hosted documentary television program ‘The Twentieth Century’ in 1968.
As of 2019, the surviving prototype can be seen at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia. The robot weighs 3,000 pounds and can walk up to 5 miles per hour. It was exhausting to control and, according to program lead Mosher who was the designer and primary driver, operators could only drive the walking truck for a limited time. Mosher also worked on the unsuccessful Hardiman project for GE, the first attempt to build a practical powered exoskeleton. Continue reading →
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September 9, 2019
Word painting (also known as ‘tone painting’) is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song’s lyrics.
For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death. Continue reading →
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September 6, 2019
Joie de vivre (‘joy of living’) is a French phrase often used in English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit.
It ‘can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a Weltanschauung [worldview]. Robert’s Dictionnaire says ‘joie’ is ‘sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience,’ that is, involves one’s whole being.’ Continue reading →
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September 5, 2019
The third eye (also called the mind’s eye, or inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric concept of a speculative invisible eye, usually depicted as located on the forehead, which provides perception beyond ordinary sight.
In Dharmic spiritual traditions from India, the third eye refers to the ‘ajna’ (or brow) chakra (supposed ‘life force’ energy centers in the human body). The third eye refers to the gate that leads to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness. In New Age spirituality, the third eye often symbolizes a state of enlightenment or the evocation of mental images having deeply personal spiritual or psychological significance. Continue reading →
Posted in Philosophy |
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August 29, 2019
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory detailing a supposed secret plot by an alleged ‘deep state’ against U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters. The theory began with an October 2017 post on the anonymous imageboard 4chan by someone using the name Q, a presumably American individual that may have later grown to include multiple people, claiming to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States.
Q has falsely accused numerous liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking officials of engaging in an international child sex trafficking ring, and has claimed that Donald Trump feigned collusion with Russians in order to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the ring and preventing a coup d’état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros. Continue reading →
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August 12, 2019
In early lumberjack folklore, fearsome critters are fantastical beasts that were said to inhabit the frontier wilderness of North America, such as the jackalope, a rabbit with the antlers of an antelope. Fearsome critters were an integral part of oral tradition in North America lumber camps during the turn of the 20th century, principally as a means to pass time (such as in tall tales) or as a jest for hazing newcomers.
In a typical fearsome critter gag, a person would casually remark about a strange noise or sight they encountered in the wild; subsequently, another accomplice would join in. Meanwhile, an eavesdropper would begin to investigate. Continue reading →
Posted in Humor |
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August 8, 2019
Autorhythmicity [aw-toh-rith-miss-uh-tee], or automaticity, refers to the heart’s ability to spontaneously generate an electric charge without outside help. Cardiac electrical activity originates in the sinoatrial node (SAN) and is propagated via the ‘His-Purkinje’ network, the fastest conduction pathway within the heart. This pathway is known as the electrical conduction system of the heart.
The electrical signal travels from the SAN, which stimulates the atria to contract, to the atrioventricular node (AVN), which slows down conduction of the action potential from the atria to the ventricles. This delay allows the ventricles to fully fill with blood before contraction. The signal then passes down through a bundle of fibers called the ‘bundle of His,’ located between the ventricles, and then to the ‘purkinje’ fibers at the bottom (apex) of the heart, causing ventricular contraction. Continue reading →
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