I.T. Erudio

Category: history

  • Vince Lombardi – Speech 1970

    SO “back in the day” (in another lifetime, in a small town in southwestern Ohio when I might have described myself as an “athlete”) a high school teacher gave me a mimeograph (“ditto sheet”) copy of a speech by Vince Lombardi. Yes, that is the “Vince Lombardi” for which the “Lombardi Trophy” is named. The…

  • Movies, Television, and Streaming

    Correlation never equals causality. Maybe that one line sums up “logic 101” and/or “statistics 101.” The example I used to hear was that there was a positive correlation between ice cream sales and drowning. As ice cream sales increase so does the number of deaths by drowning. BUT eating ice cream does not CAUSE drowning…

  • memoirs of an adjunct instructor or What do you mean “full stack developer?”

    During the “great recession” of 2008 I kind of backed into “teaching.” The small company where I was the “network technician” for 9+ years wasn’t dying so much as “winding down.” I had ample notice that I was becoming “redundant” – in fact the owner PROBABLY should have “let me go” sooner than he did.…

  • Sisyphus, “Say Anything”, The Seeker

    The tragic part of living a life of “quiet desperation” (in the Henry David Thoreau sense) is usually the lost opportunity to do good as opposed to “intentional malice.” For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. Sonnet 94 (William Shakespeare) In 2023 Merriam-Webster tells us that a…

  • Science Fiction, “social commentary”, and “Politics”

    FIRST I will say that I am a fan of William Shatner OC. The “OC” stands for “Order of Canada” – which is an honor of merit bestowed by the Canadian government. The 2019 announcement specifically mentions Captain James T Kirk/Star Trek but these types of honors tend to be conferred because of a combination…

  • Markets and Competition

    True innovation is rare. Ecclesiastes 1:9 is several thousand years old and tells us that “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Of course when we aren’t talking about “big picture…

  • Talking Football – August 2023

    Back when the B1G was actually 10 teams – “two yards and a cloud of dust” was sometimes used to describe the offense philosophy of most coaches in the conference. The forward pass might have been added in 1906, but to paraphrase a coach “three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two…

  • Random thoughts on Time, Distance, and Faster Than Light Travel

    The good folks at Merriam-Webster give us 14 definitions for “time” as a noun, another 5 as a verb, and then 3 more as an adjective. A quick peek at the etymology tells us that the “time” came into the English language by way of Old English and (Old Norse) words for “tide.” That “time”…

  • Mr Warhol and photography copyrights

    Since Andy Warhol died in 1987 – the Supreme Court was probably/technically ruling against his “estate” in their recent decision. Mr Warhol had used a photograph of Prince (“The Artist”) in a 1980’s painting (“Orange Prince”) – money changed hands among the concerned parties back in the early 1980’s so there wasn’t any problem until…

  • The GREATEST movie of ALL TIME

    well, the obvious problem with the title is “how do you define ‘great’?” of course everyone that has answered the question has been “correct” – “greatness” is determined by individual tastes. Consider that the credit for creating the “modern summer blockbuster” belongs to “Jaws” (1975) – which was the “greatest box office success” of all…