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The board game Tak (pronounced to rhyme with “back”) originally appeared as a prop in the fantasy/scifi book series The Kingkiller Chronicle, and was then brought to life in the real world. History In 1994, aspiring author Patrick Rothfuss began work on his first book, a scifi/fantasy story which was originally titled The Song of Flame and … Continue reading The Fantasy Game of Tak →
The Vigenere Cipher is an encryption system that was developed over 500 years ago, and a variant of it was still being used by Soviet KGB spies in the 1950s. Ever since people have been writing, they have been searching for ways to make their written messages secure. This has historically been most important for … Continue reading The Vigenere Cipher →
In October 1943, inmates at the Nazi extermination camp in Sobibor, in Poland, organized an uprising that destroyed the camp and led to the escape of hundreds of prisoners. In January 1942, a group of fifteen Nazi government officials met in the Wannsee suburb of Berlin with Reinhard Heydrich, second-in-command of the SS under Heinrich Himmler. … Continue reading The Sobibor Rebellion →
This futuristic sculpture in Millennium Park has become an icon of Chicago. In 1997, the city of Chicago was making plans for a patch of land near Grant Park on the shore of Lake Michigan that had previously been a parking lot and a railroad yard. At first, there was talk of building a large … Continue reading Cloud Gate, Chicago’s “Bean” →
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I remember the first time I sat down and watched Andrei Tarkovsky’s lyrical, meandering sci-fi epic Stalker. It was a long time ago, before the advent of smartphones and tablets. I watched a beat-up VHS copy on a non-“smart” TV, and had no ability to pause every few minutes and swing by Facebook, Twitter, or […]
Pompey’s Greatest Show on Earth JamesHoare Tue, 03/04/2025 - 09:08
While most foragers had great respect for nature, our farmer-era ancestors had less resepct.
Before his fateful entry into politics, Adolf Hitler wanted to be an artist. Even to the most neutral imaginable observer, the known examples of the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 paintings and other works of art he produced in his early adulthood would hardly evidence astonishing genius. They do show a certain technical competence, especially where […]
