We've all heard humorous tales of language mix-ups, but so-called "false friends" can have consequences far beyond embarrassment. From derailing…
While many words degrade, some do the opposite in a process called amelioration. This post explores the linguistic glow-up of…
We trust our maps to tell us the truth, but what if they're lying? From Greenland's icy shores named to…
Every word has a family tree, but what about the "orphan words"—linguistic mysteries like *dog*, *bad*, and *quiz*—that appear in…
Stylometry is the statistical analysis of literary style, a fascinating field that uncovers a writer's unique "fingerprint" hidden within their…
Long before digital encryption, the ancient Spartans secured their military secrets with a simple but ingenious device: the Scytale. This…
A null cipher is a clever form of steganography where a secret is hidden within an ordinary-looking text. Instead of…
The male/female silhouette on a bathroom door and the Wi-Fi symbol on a café window are part of a global,…
Animal communication isn't always honest. By viewing the natural world through the lens of cryptography, we can see how species…
An author's unique patterns of word choice, punctuation, and sentence length create a "linguistic watermark" that can serve as an…
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