[russellbeattie]

Here's something random about "Neanderthal".

The word comes from the Neander Valley (Neander-thal) where their fossils were originally discovered. It was named after Joachim Neander, a 17th-century German pastor. Neander is a latinization of his family name Neumann, meaning "new man".

So not only did we discover a new type of man in a valley named new man, but the computers that are used for artificial intelligence (a future type of new man) all use the von Neumann architecture.

I found that amusing.

(Other random detail: The word "dollar" is derived from "thal". The Holy Roman Empire first minted standardized 1 ounce coins made out of silver from mines in Joachimsthal ("Joachim's Valley") and so were called Joachimsthalers. That got shortened to "thaler", then through Low German "daler" then Dutch to English.)

[andrekandre]

  > The word "dollar" is derived from "thal". 

you are my hero; and this is why i love hn, cause this was something in the back of my mind that i wanted to find out about, and what do you know, a fellow hn'er just wrote it in a random comment. thanks!!

[herodoturtle]

> Here's something random about "Neanderthal"

If you'll permit me to throw in some fun (and arguably related) trivia:

Niander Wallace is the main antagonist in Blade Runner 2049. He's a genius industrialist that manufacturers high-tech human "replicants" for profit, and in pursuit of his ultimate goal to "storm Eden and retake her". An yet the thing that holds him back is his inability to get his replicants to procreate.

[xp84]

If you have a substack, I would subscribe to it

[alanbernstein]

As they say, history rhymes

[ant6n]

Isn’t that what George Lukas said about Star Wars?

[newsy-combi]

Wait till you find out we live in a Von Neumann Universe