Potpourri: Incredible Coincidences
The dictionary defines a coincidence as “A sequence of events that, although accidental, seems to have been planned or arranged.” We have probably all experienced coincidences of some type or another....
15 Joulu 202315min
Copper
When humans first learned how to work with metal, the very first metal they used was copper. Copper was easy to shape, easy to find, and relatively abundant. Since those early humans began using cop...
14 Joulu 202313min
Alexander the Great
In the year 356 BC, a son was born to the King of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Queen Olympias. While no one could have known it at the time, that boy would grow up to fundamentally change the map...
13 Joulu 202314min
Punctuation Marks (Encore)
There was a time when languages had no punctuation. Not only did they not have punctuation, but they also didn’t even have spaces between words, and in some cases, they didn’t even use vowels. It was...
12 Joulu 202311min
Cracking the Enigma Code
During the Second World War, the Germans used what they thought to be an uncrackable encryption system. It was a really good encryption system, and for the longest time, the Allies had a difficult ti...
11 Joulu 202313min
The Quasi-War
In the big scheme of things, the United States is a rather young country. Yet, during its history, it has managed to declare war on a shockingly large number of European countries, including Britain, ...
10 Joulu 202314min
Shakespeare’s English (Encore)
English is a very strange language. It is a Germanic language where half of the words come from a Romance language. We have a host of words that make absolutely no sense in terms of spelling or pronun...
9 Joulu 202311min
Hanukkah
Every December, members of the Jewish faith celebrate the festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is one of the best-known Jewish holidays and is associated with various popular symbols and objects. However, m...
8 Joulu 202313min
