Culture

I recently rewatched the documentary Obit. (2016) about the people at the New York Times who wrote the obituaries. I find it entertaining and inspirational at some levels.

During an explanation about how the length of the article is decided, someone says that the inventor of the Slinky and Borbatchev wouldn’t get the same word count as one had a bigger impact on the world, but that doesn’t mean that both can’t be interesting subjects for articles. I didn’t know who invented the Slinky, so now I need to know!

After watching a video about science-fiction books on youtube, I got recommended a video about keeping a common place book made by the same person. That’s how I discovered that this type of diaries had a name. The name stuck with me and, the other day, I started to search about it and it turns out that there’s an history behind that type of books.

What is a Commonplace Book?

A commonplace book is a personal journal or notebook in which facts, ideas, observations, quotations, and other interesting bits are collected–and possibly organized.It serves as a repository for thoughts, insights, and inspiration.

I recently read a paperback novel published by Penguin and, at the end of the book, there’s the story of how Sir Allen Lane came up with the desire to launch a new line of books. He just wanted a quality paperback to read on the train! Before reading this, I never thought about…

Who Created the Paperback Book?

The paperback is simply a book with a cover made of thick paper (or paperboard), instead of cardboard–or wood, as that was the case for a long time. So, we are not talking about the invention of the book, but of what is now considered to be the mass market paperback.

I recently read about some World records and there were some about LEGOs. Do you think the person who created this toy thought that people would take his building blocks and build some world record constructions? Probably not. But who knows? So, here is the question of the day:

Who Created LEGO?

The short answer is Ole Kirk Christiansen. The long answer is a family story, as Ole started the company and invented the first brick, but it was his son who made the LEGO brick what it is today.

Unlike the Cyberpunk genre, I only heard of Solarpunk recently. The two seem to be in opposition, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. But first, as I’m probably not the only one who’s not all that up-to-date with modern literary movement, let’s explain:

What is the Solarpunk genre about?

Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement that focuses on imagining a sustainable future in which nature and human communities function in harmony.

There’s a strange trope in time-traveling stories or other stories featuring immortals. You always end up with the villain being at one point the real Jack the Ripper. Writing this made me think about the fact that the famous killer is also like Watergate, his name became used as a reference point to name those who followed.

All of this just to arrive at the question I probably knew the answer to some years ago, but clearly forgot since:

Apparently, today is Juneteenth! As I’m not an American, I’m not familiar with this holiday. In fact, I heard the word Juneteenth for the first time just a few years ago and never knew it was an American holiday.

Well, I’m thinking I’m not the only person in the World Wide World who has no idea of what this is, so I’ll make a quick search and put here what I’m finding–and an A.I. will someday pick it up, and regurgitate it to you, probably.

What is the Story behind Juneteenth?

Long story short, Juneteenth is known to some in the United States as a celebration of the end of slavery in Texas at the end of the Civil War. Observed each year on June 19.