Indirect arguments

Simple is not always true

A common feature of paradoxers is a confusion between a simple argument and a correct one.

Read More

Share Button

The colors of your mind

Does what you say affect what you see?

We consider how your words may affect your eyes.

Read More

Share Button

An unlikely number

The weight of history

When does it make sense to change an obsolete and unwieldy system?

Read More

Share Button

Consider the horse

A sudden obsolescence

The most momentous event of the twentieth century, as seen from the standpoint of human history, seems to have gone mostly unnoticed.

Read More

Share Button

Remembrance of things past

When learning doesn’t fade away

Our tutoring consultant has an encouraging experience with his own memory.

Read More

Share Button

A surfeit of features

No one uses them all

Digital cameras, like calculators, have an immense menu of features.  It’s certainly rare, and possibly unknown, for anyone to use them all.  Why have them, then?

Read More

Share Button

Why a forecast discussion?

More than numbers

Weather forecasts are much more reliable than they used to be, mostly thanks to more powerful computers.  Input from people is still important, though.

Read More

Share Button

The lovers’ lodestone

A prehistory of wireless telegraphy

It was much more difficult to stay in touch 300 years ago.  A literary magazine from that era has a suggestion for a surprisingly modern way to do it.

Read More

Share Button

Reading the manuscript

Why handwriting?

Communication in writing nowadays is almost exclusively done in type.  Why, then, should anyone care about being able to write legibly?

Read More

Share Button

Science fiction and verb conjugations

Past, present and future are not enough

Science fiction writers imagine whole new universes and explore their possibilities, as we’ve mentioned before.  Perhaps they need to think about the changes in language that go along with them.

Read More

Share Button