This Day in Blogging History: Crochet your own Panzer slippers; Whole Earth Catalog as early blog; Odds on Monopoly squares

One year ago today

Pattern for crocheted Panzer tank slippers: a peaceful project to while away the long nights on the Eastern front.

Five years ago today

Whole Earth Catalog as early blog: These missives in the Catalog were blog postings. Except rather than being published individually on home pages, they were handwritten and mailed into the merry band of Whole Earth editors who would typeset them with almost no editing (just the binary editing of print or not-print) and quickly "post" them on cheap newsprint to the millions of readers who tuned in to the Catalog's publishing stream.

Ten years ago today
What're the odds on Monopoly squares?: When trying to calculate the probabilities exactly using the Markov matrix, it is necessary to estimate the probability–for each square–that the last two rolls of the dice are doubles (since three doubles in a row sends you to jail).