Category Archives: History

Toads Around Your Neck and Forcing Kids to Smoke- Escaping The Great Plague of London (1665-1666)

Occurring between 1665 and 1666, the Great Plague wasn’t exactly the first time London had experienced such a terrifying spread of disease, with periodic cases being reported in the city for decades up to this point and, of course, that time about two-thirds of China’s population and then a decade later about half of Europe’s, including an awful lot of […]

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In Which Teddy Roosevelt Makes Men Everywhere Feel a Little Less Manly

Along with serving two terms as the President of the United States between 1901 and 1909, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt also had a laundry list of supremely manly escapades throughout his life, such as the time he was shot in the chest in an assassination attempt, but went ahead and gave a lengthy speech he’d planned anyway before seeking medical attention. […]

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The Claque

The word “claque” is derived from the 16th century French term “claquer”, which roughly meant “to clap”, and is largely used to refer to a group of individuals hired to give a pre-determined response to a performance, be it positive, negative or anything in between. Individual members of a claque are generally referred to as “claquers” or “claqueurs” and for a […]

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Glowing in the Trenches

During WWI, when an Allied soldier wanted to read a map or letter at night, his choices were very limited- wait until it gets light, or risk exposing himself to enemy fire by firing up something like a bright lamp or lighter, if he had one. However, there was a seldom discussed third choice that was readily available- gather up […]

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Why “C” is the Default Hard Drive Letter in Many Computers

Julie N. asks: Why is “C” the default drive letter in computers? For nearly as long as hard disk drives have been placed in personal computers running certain popular operating systems (notably MS-DOS/Windows), the primary hard disk has been designated with the letter “C”.  But why? The idea for designating different storage devices with simple letters is generally attributed to […]

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