You are here: Home › Author Archives

Author Archives

Harald Sack

history
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a Stately Pleasure-Dome Decree

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a Stately Pleasure-Dome Decree

Harald Sack
On September 23, 1215 AD Kublai Khan, the second son of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki, and a grandson of Genghis Khan, was born. Considering the Mongol Empire at that time as a whole, his realm reached from the Pacific to the Black Sea, from Siberia to modern day Afghanistan – one fifth of the world‘s inhabited land area. Kublai’s Way to Power Although the prince had Chinese educators and advisors, he still lived…
Read more
cinematography
Erich von Stroheim – Always a man of his own Invention

Erich von Stroheim – Always a man of his own Invention

Harald Sack
On September 22, 1885, Austrian-American director, actor and producer Erich von Stroheim was born. He is most noted as a film star and avant garde, visionary director of the silent era. His masterpiece adaptation of Frank Norris’s McTeague entitled Greed is considered one of the finest and most important films ever made. After clashes with Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers’ rights issues, von Stroheim was banned for life as a…
Read more
communication
What a Brick! – The World’s First Cell Phone

What a Brick! – The World’s First Cell Phone

Harald Sack
On September 21, 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC, the world‘s first commercially available cell phone received its FCC certification. DynaTAC was an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage. But, with a price of $3,995 in 1983 ($9,322 in present-day terms) it was a rather expensive while also exclusive gadget. But, it was not the first mobile phone at all. Actually, in Germany, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Railways) already started experimenting with a…
Read more
mathematics
What’s your Erdös Number? – The bustling Life of Mathematician Paul Erdös

What’s your Erdös Number? – The bustling Life of Mathematician Paul Erdös

Harald Sack
On September 20, 1996, Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös passed away. He published more scientific papers than any other mathematician in history, with hundreds of collaborators. Thus, he even created a ‘small world’ of its own, the famous club of people that posess an ‘Erdös Number‘. BTW, my Erdös number is 3, i.e. I have published a paper together with a co-author whose Erdös number is 2. In this little game of numbers,…
Read more
computer science
Scott Fahlman and the Origin of the Emoticons :-)

Scott Fahlman and the Origin of the Emoticons :-)

Harald Sack
On September 19, 1982, Scott Fahlman posted the first documented emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System. As SMS and the Internet became widespread in the late 1990s, emoticons became increasingly popular and were commonly used on text messages, internet forums and e-mails. Emoticons have played a significant role in communication through technology. “I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile —…
Read more
computer science
Linux at the Core of the Open Source Revolution

Linux at the Core of the Open Source Revolution

Harald Sack
On September 17, 1991, the Finnish student of computer science Linus Torvalds, uploaded Linux kernel version 0.01 to the ftp server ftp.funet.fi. This might be considered as the date of birth of the famous free operating system Linux, although Torvalds announced the new OS a few weeks earlier on usenet already. Nevertheless, Linux has become one of the most popular operating systems today, and this of course with a god reason…. I…
Read more
literature
Agatha Christie – Explorer, Archaeologist, and World Famous Author of Detective Stories

Agatha Christie – Explorer, Archaeologist, and World Famous Author of Detective Stories

Harald Sack
On September 15, 1890, English writer Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, known as Agatha Christie, was born. Agatha Christie is known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap. The Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels…
Read more
philosophy
Theodor W. Adorno’s Critical Theory of Society

Theodor W. Adorno’s Critical Theory of Society

Harald Sack
On September 11, 1903, German philosopher and sociologist Theodor W. Adorno was born. Adorno is known for his critical theory of society. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Freud, Marx, and Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. He…
Read more
literature
If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy

If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy

Harald Sack
On September 9, 1828, Russian writer Count Lyov (also Lev) Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was born. Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest authors of all times. His main works War and Peace and Anna Karenina are classics of the realistic novel. “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1875-1877), first sentence Family…
Read more
art
Not Simply a Piece of Marble – Michelangelo’s David

Not Simply a Piece of Marble – Michelangelo’s David

Harald Sack
On September 8, 1504 Michelangelo‘s David, a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, was unveiled in the city of Florence. The 5 metres high and 6 tons heavy marble statue depicts the Biblical hero David, right before his fight with the enormous Philistine warrior Goliath with the slingshot already on his shoulder, which is special because previous sculptures or art works, like the one’s by Andrea del Castagno or Donatello show David after the famous…
Read more
Relation Browser
Timeline
0 Recommended Articles:
0 Recommended Articles: