Encrypted Pigeons

Whatever caught my interest this week

Encrypted Pigeons

Category: Facts

Strange, surprising, and delightfully odd, this is the home of the facts that make you say “Wait, really?”

🗞️ The most famous thing Disraeli never said

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On 7 November 2026

In Facts, Opinions

Two posts within 24 hours? Incredible. But whilst this post and the last one aren’t directly related, I’ve been thinking about both of them at the same time, so some ideas may cross-over. Consider this a happy coincidence.

Benjamin Disraeli was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1868, and again in 1874–1880. He was a member of the Conservative Party, gave Queen Victoria the official title “Empress of India”, reformed trade unions and education, and championed ‘One Nation Conservatism’ at home, which would influence the Conservative party for decades to come.

Beyond politics, Disraeli was also a popular novelist, writing over a dozen books in his career. As a result of all of this, he’s often a person that things are attributed to, whether he was actually involved with them or not. One of the more prevalent fields this occurs in is quotes supposedly “said by Disraeli”. I can’t think of a nicher subject to talk about currently, so naturally I thought I’d write an article on it.

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🤖 People really complain about water a lot

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On 6 November 2026

In Facts, Opinions

The biggest critique I’ve heard about AI — and it’s a reasonable one, let’s be fair — is the environmental concerns, and particularly with regards to water usage. In my case though, I’ve noticed people around me use it almost as a buzz phrase to reject AI without considering the possibility that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. So that’s what I’m doing — proving my friends wrong and writing an interesting article in the meantime.

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🔧 My issue with self-hosting

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On 30 October 2026

In Facts

A lot of the services that I use daily, I host myself on my own hardware. It’s perfect for me, because I get better privacy over my data, whilst also being able to tinker around with computers a lot.

However, there is one issue that is a constant burden for me, and I don’t think there’s a way to resolve it. The trouble with the internet is that there are lots of people (and increasingly lots of AIs) that would love nothing more than to have access to my server and my services, for data leaks, or even to execute some kind of attack. And what’s the safest way to stop the internet accessing your stuff? Don’t have it accessible to the internet in the first place!

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🥔 Scotland’s termtime schedule is based on potatoes?

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On 18 August 2026

In Facts

In Scotland, the country harvests their potatoes — colloquially known as “tatties” — around mid-October. Farming families, looking for more labourers to help them, would often bring their children out of school during the season to help with the harvest.

Eventually, schools became so empty during this period that the schools themselves, who generally received funds based on attendance, were suffering, and complaining to the then Scotch Education Department. Around the 1870s, the Department decided to make the entire period a school holiday, which was quite an effective way of avoiding having to deal with the problem. 🤣

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🐴 My ode to The Odyssey

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On 9 August 2026

In Facts

Today, I finally got around to watching Christopher Nolan’s new(ish) film: The Odyssey. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but there are a few key areas that I would question.

For the avoidance of doubt, and if you hadn’t realised already, this post contains spoilers for the film.

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📅 Why are months named so oddly?

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On 1 August 2026

In Facts

There are twelve months in the year, and each one has a unique and distinctive name. There are some distinct patterns though, linked mostly to history, and specifically the Romans.

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⛵ What’s the difference between “Boat” and “Ship”?

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On 29 July 2026

In Facts

Watercraft of some form or another seems to have existed for around the last 50,000 years, with the first rafts coming from settlers in Australia. But since then they have evolved enormously, from canoes to rowboats, to war and cruiseships. With them has evolved the terminology we use, but how much do we actually understand what we’re saying? What is the difference between a ship, and a boat?

The etymology of the two words can give us some insight. Both come from Old English, where boat or “bat”, may have meant something like “to split”, potentially referencing the way a tree trunk is split to carve out a boat. Ship, however, comes from “scip”, which specifically refers to a larger ship for navigation.

So it’s sorted: a ship is larger than a boat. Problem solved! Except it’s not that simple.

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