random trivia

44% of the elderly in Kentucky have no teeth

The term Luddite is based on a mythical character named Ned Ludd in George Pellew's The Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847). Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of insane rage, rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment. With the onset of the Information Age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.

Clans of long ago that wished to rid themselves of people without killing them used to burn the offending parties' houses down. Hence the expression "to get fired".

In 1945, a computer at Harvard malfunctioned. Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.