Alas, it has been a while since I’ve written a new LSNED article. There are only 24 hours in a day, you know! Twenty-four seems like an arbitrary number to choose for hours in a day. Consider that somebody along the way had to decide how long an hour was, and how many could squeeze [...]
Fun Fact: If the movie Rocky had been about wheelchair boxing (yes, it does exist!) then, according to the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the famous training montage would have climaxed with a dramatic roll up a 672 foot long wheelchair ramp to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Okay everybody, get yourself a [...]
These days any weather report worth its salt will include the UV index number. I think we all understand the practicality of it. The higher the number, the higher risk of sunburn. But personally, that superficial understanding doesn’t satisfy my curiosity. I also get to brag a little, as the UV Index in a Canadian [...]
As I was driving down a remote highway this afternoon I saw a curiosity-inspiring sign. “Speed Limit Enforced By Aircraft”. It immediately induced several silly scenarios to play out in my head. I suppose if you got it up to 260 km/h (160 miles per hour) you could potentially be chased by a Cessna aircraft… [...]
Please put your desk chairs in the full upright and locked position. We’re not expecting any turbulence, but as we sit we are moving at an astronomical speed… literally. You and I are little blobs of stuff (and no, I’m not calling you fat) stuck like bubble gum to the side of earth. It feels [...]
In popular internet culture, declaring a “FAIL” is the best thing since bacon. But today we’re looking at the almost-fail. In North American schools you’re most often given a letter grade: A, B, C, D, or F. But hey now… what happened to E? Some grading systems do include an E grade, like the European [...]
The time is 250 BC, about 1500 years before what we call “modern science” took it’s first baby steps. The Egyptian city of Alexandria, on the northern coast of Egypt, was home to the greatest library that ever existed, filled with the wisest people of the day, and the birthplace of many fundamentals of mathematics, [...]