My kingdom for a wireless protocol!

The Bluetooth standard is named after the 10th century Scandinavian king Harald ‘Blåtand’ Gormsson. Legend has it, Blåtand (meaning ‘Bluetooth’ in English) ate so many blueberries that they stained his teeth blue. Originally developed by two engineers at Ericsson in Sweden, the Bluetooth protocol was meant to set a unified standard, replacing a variety of competing protocols. The name was inspired by Blåtand who managed to unify the various Danish tribes into one Danish kingdom. If you look closely at the Bluetooth logo, you can see the long-branch Nordic runes for ‘H’ and ‘B’.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Bluetooth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/10/the-bluetooth-standard-is-named-after-a-10th-century-scandinavian-king/

There is no official name in English for any of our fingers. As the years have rolled by, each of our digits has seen various names come and go. But ring finger is currently the most common way of referring to the finger that lies between the pinkie and the middle finger on each hand (and it is not colloquial, slang, or otherwise frowned upon). We have referred to this finger as the one that the ring goes on since Old English, when it was called the hring finger.

?One of the many names that this ring finger has had over the centuries is leech finger. This makes much more sense when you realize that leech is a very old term for a physician or doctor (the bloodsucking annelid worm is called by this name because of the habit that physicians had of sticking them onto patients, in order to remove unwanted blood).

?In addition to the not very euphonious leech finger, the ring finger has been called the leechman finger, the medical (and medicinal) finger, the physic (and physician) finger, the annular finger and the heart finger. For a brief period of time in the 17th century it was even called, with no apparent sense of irony, the nameless finger.

?The other fingers have all had multiple names over the years (even the thumb, which is sometimes also referred to as the pollex). The little finger was once upon a time commonly referred to as the ear finger, for the simple reason that it was the finger best able to function as a Q-Tip in the days before we had such luxury items.

Source:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/how-the-ring-finger-got-its-name

Merriam-Webster

How the 'Ring Finger' Got Its Name

'Leech finger' doesn't have the same ring to it

?The fourth digit on the hand is known as the ring finger. The 'ring finger' got its name from the ancient belief that a vein directly connected it to the human heart, and that wearing a ring on that finger might alleviate ailments. It was called the 'leech finger' for similar reasons.

?In 1530, to escape the wrath of the Pope, Michelangelo holed up in a tiny secret room under the Medici Chapel of the Basilica di San Lorenzo. The artist had been working on the lavish tomb when all hell broke loose in Florence, and he was forced into hiding. With nothing but time and a little charcoal on his hands, he covered the bare walls with some prisoner graffiti.??

?But why was Michelangelo hidding?

Michelangelo owed his career to the Medici, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Europe. In 1529 he joined ranks with other Florentines who had grown weary of their rule, hoping for a more democratic system of governance. Defying the formidable family, let alone the Pope (Clement VII, who was a Medici), was more than a little counterintuitive for the artist, whose livelihood depended on them. But defy he did, working to help fortify the city walls against Medici-friendly forces led by the Pope himself. ?

?‍?After ten months of struggle the Pope and his family won, and the republican sympathizers were swiftly punished. This would have included Michelangelo, had he not retreated for those three months to his subterranean hideaway to wait it out. ?

?What happened after?

In November of 1530, after the Pope let it be known that Michelangelo could go back to work—unpunished–to complete the Chapel, he reemerged. All was forgiven between the artist and his patrons, eager to finally have their finished tomb. Michelangelo never let on where he had been, and for almost 500 years his whereabouts remained a secret. During this time, some believed he had been staying with a friend or in a church bell tower.

?The room and the drawings weren’t discovered until 1976, when they were stumbled upon by the director of the Museum of the Medici Chapel. Since then, given its fragility, the tiny, dark and unvented space has been alternately opened and closed to the public.

Imagine spending three months down there with nothing but doodling to keep you occupied.

Source:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/michelangelos-hidden-drawings

Atlas Obscura

Michelangelo's Hidden Drawings

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel.

?Today the ampersand is a mark of dignity and style, used by law firms and big businesses, a chance for graphic and type designers to show off a bit. But for most of its history, the ampersand was all about efficiency. ?

?It derives from the Latin et, meaning “and.”

Look very close at et. Cross your eyes. Remind you of something? Years of filigree from designers have hidden its origins, but “&” begins with “et” smooshed together by scribes. Type designer Frederic Goudy dates it back to a system of shorthand devised by Tiro, personal secretary of Cicero, although that symbol is now considered the “Tironian et,” which looks like a walking stick and shows up only in Gaelic.

?The ampersand turned out to be just as useful in the age of the printing press. “Et” tends to run together when printed as well, which designers address with something called a ligature, which compresses two letters into one glyph.

?During the 19th century it was considered the 27th letter of the English alphabet. ?‍?At that time, English schoolchildren learning to spell were taught to refer to letters that are also words as “per se” letters, from the Latin for “in itself.” ?

A kid reciting the ABCs would say “Per se A, B, C… H, per se I, J, K,” and on to “X, Y, and per se &,” with the ampersand pronounced, of course, as “and.”

Just as et was condensed into &, “and per se and” became “ampersand.” ?

Source:

Great info and book:

https://books.google.es/books?id=uo1j1buy2qYC&pg=PA79&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://typographyforlawyers.com/ligatures.html

https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19361111-01.2.22

https://www.fastcompany.com/3055622/why-designers-love-the-ampersand

Google Books

Digital Typography Pocket Primer

?Today the ampersand is a mark of dignity and style, used by law firms and big businesses, a chance for graphic and type designers to show off a bit. But for most of its history, the ampersand was all about efficiency. ?

35,000: Approximate number of fireflies it would take to equal a 100-watt bulb

?We can calculate that you would need 709,220 fireflies to produce as much light as a 100-watt bulb. However, since only 5% of the energy produced by an incandescent bulb is in the visible range, that number drops to 35,461 fireflies—in fact, even fewer than this are really needed, because our eye is more sensitive to green light than to other colors. (This is not taking into account the fact that fireflies will block each other's light.)

Source and even more nerd facts about fireflies:
https://www.randombio.com/fireflies.html

? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." ?
?These words are usually credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein... but it seems there is no substantive evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement above. ?

➡️It is listed within a section called “Misattributed to Einstein” in the comprehensive reference “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press.

?The earliest strong match known appeared in October 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper article describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an organization designed to help the families of alcoholics. The journalist described the “Twelve Steps” of Al-Anon which are based on similar steps employed in Alcoholics Anonymous.

?The second earliest strong match known to appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Anonymous organization in November 1981:

The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than it is for the addict who merely lies to a doctor, but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.

✍️In conclusion, based on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified by the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this adage. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported. ?

Source and even more quotes!
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper)

? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." ?