Bran Besalke
@encyclopaedia-fortuita.com
Reference work otaku. 🏳️⚧️ He/they.
Languages: 🇺🇸 / 🇩🇪 / 🇯🇵
Studied utopian literature and Michael Ende. 🐢 Now I do business computer stuff in STL and am generally disappointed in myself.
https://encyclopaedia-fortuita.com
Languages: 🇺🇸 / 🇩🇪 / 🇯🇵
Studied utopian literature and Michael Ende. 🐢 Now I do business computer stuff in STL and am generally disappointed in myself.
https://encyclopaedia-fortuita.com
2025 Year in Review encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
2025 in Review | Encyclopædia Fortuita
encyclopaedia-fortuita.com
January 1, 2026 at 1:36 AM
2025 Year in Review encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Reposted by Bran Besalke
For my newsletter, I wrote about that college essay scandal that's gone viral and what everyone is seeming to miss:
It's about ATTACKING TRANS PEOPLE!!!
www.burnsnotice.com/that-viral-e...
It's about ATTACKING TRANS PEOPLE!!!
www.burnsnotice.com/that-viral-e...
That Viral Essay Scandal is (SURPRISE!) Actually About Trans People
A shoddy Oklahoma University essay went viral. Cis people think this is about conservatives whining for better grades. Trans people see a planned attack on a trans academic.
(Note for free subscriber...
www.burnsnotice.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:18 PM
For my newsletter, I wrote about that college essay scandal that's gone viral and what everyone is seeming to miss:
It's about ATTACKING TRANS PEOPLE!!!
www.burnsnotice.com/that-viral-e...
It's about ATTACKING TRANS PEOPLE!!!
www.burnsnotice.com/that-viral-e...
I want to scream this title every morning I walk to work as the company's landscaping company futilely blows at a countable number of leaves. I think back to when my kid would grab leaves off the path and run them to the grass; she in all her stubby-legged-toddler-ineptitude was faster and quieter.
You know what, I'm just gonna re-up this post
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I want to scream this title every morning I walk to work as the company's landscaping company futilely blows at a countable number of leaves. I think back to when my kid would grab leaves off the path and run them to the grass; she in all her stubby-legged-toddler-ineptitude was faster and quieter.
This reminds me a bit of Michael Ende reading the Fusi bit from Momo after dinner during a Duttweiler conference on microprocessors and factory automation replacing human workers (silence, then someone called out "What is this nonsense?"). Art on deaf ears.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3m...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3m...
Null und eins macht Kunst? I Marc-Uwe Kling
YouTube video by Plattform Lernende Systeme
www.youtube.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM
This reminds me a bit of Michael Ende reading the Fusi bit from Momo after dinner during a Duttweiler conference on microprocessors and factory automation replacing human workers (silence, then someone called out "What is this nonsense?"). Art on deaf ears.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3m...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3m...
Reposted by Bran Besalke
I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
October 11, 2025 at 2:53 PM
I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...
This week's ZDF Magazin Royale is posted with English subtitles. A view of the US from someone in a country that has history with things we are going through. youtu.be/s8Tdik5YEo8?...
Verschwörung, Zensur und fliegende Sandwiches: Die USA im Umbau zur Autokratie | ZDF Magazin Royale
YouTube video by ZDF MAGAZIN ROYALE
youtu.be
September 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
This week's ZDF Magazin Royale is posted with English subtitles. A view of the US from someone in a country that has history with things we are going through. youtu.be/s8Tdik5YEo8?...
My math book is safe. It's very safe.
September 19, 2025 at 1:22 AM
My math book is safe. It's very safe.
I just turned in my last assignment for what has been, without a doubt, the hardest class I have ever completed (2nd place now for my ill-fated attempt to take Old Norse at the LMU, which I ended up turning into just an audit credit). Abstract Algebra in 8 weeks is insanity.
August 23, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I just turned in my last assignment for what has been, without a doubt, the hardest class I have ever completed (2nd place now for my ill-fated attempt to take Old Norse at the LMU, which I ended up turning into just an audit credit). Abstract Algebra in 8 weeks is insanity.
To my partner last night: "The author of the textbook for this class really needs to shove every instance of the phrase 'it is easy...' up his ass." I really do feel like editors help minimize phrases like that. You never know what parts someone will find challenging. It's salt on the wound.
August 2, 2025 at 9:27 PM
To my partner last night: "The author of the textbook for this class really needs to shove every instance of the phrase 'it is easy...' up his ass." I really do feel like editors help minimize phrases like that. You never know what parts someone will find challenging. It's salt on the wound.
10 video games to get to know me (Alphabetical Order)
⌨️ Age of Empires II: Conquerors
🎮 ChronoTrigger
🎮 Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth
🎮 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
🎮 Yoshi's Island
🎮 Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
🎮 Super Daryl Deluxe
⌨️ Quest for Glory
🎮 Tetris
⌨️ Torin's Passage
⌨️ Age of Empires II: Conquerors
🎮 ChronoTrigger
🎮 Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth
🎮 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
🎮 Yoshi's Island
🎮 Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
🎮 Super Daryl Deluxe
⌨️ Quest for Glory
🎮 Tetris
⌨️ Torin's Passage
10 video games to get to know me 🎮
In no particular order
💫Undertale
💫Final Fantasy IV
💫Pokemon Heart Gold
💫Animal Crossing New Horizons
💫Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
💫Fantasy Life
💫Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
💫In Stars and Time
💫Skyrim
💫Legend of Zelda Minish Cap
In no particular order
💫Undertale
💫Final Fantasy IV
💫Pokemon Heart Gold
💫Animal Crossing New Horizons
💫Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
💫Fantasy Life
💫Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
💫In Stars and Time
💫Skyrim
💫Legend of Zelda Minish Cap
10 video games to get to know me 🎮
🌿 Abzû
🌿 PMD Blue Rescue Team
🌿 Pokémon Sapphire
🌿 Fantasy Life
🌿 Monument Valley
🌿 Journey
🌿 The Arcana: A Mystic Romance
🌿 Animal Crossing: Wild World
🌿 Stardew Valley
🌿 Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
🌿 Abzû
🌿 PMD Blue Rescue Team
🌿 Pokémon Sapphire
🌿 Fantasy Life
🌿 Monument Valley
🌿 Journey
🌿 The Arcana: A Mystic Romance
🌿 Animal Crossing: Wild World
🌿 Stardew Valley
🌿 Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
April 19, 2025 at 8:11 PM
10 video games to get to know me (Alphabetical Order)
⌨️ Age of Empires II: Conquerors
🎮 ChronoTrigger
🎮 Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth
🎮 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
🎮 Yoshi's Island
🎮 Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
🎮 Super Daryl Deluxe
⌨️ Quest for Glory
🎮 Tetris
⌨️ Torin's Passage
⌨️ Age of Empires II: Conquerors
🎮 ChronoTrigger
🎮 Code: Realize Guardian of Rebirth
🎮 Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
🎮 Yoshi's Island
🎮 Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
🎮 Super Daryl Deluxe
⌨️ Quest for Glory
🎮 Tetris
⌨️ Torin's Passage
I guessed the anime involved before reading😃 but incorrectly assumed which set of episodes would be looked at (I thought it would just be the "Endless Eight" time loop ones). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
How Anime Fans Stumbled upon a Mathematical Proof
When a fan of a cult anime series wanted to watch its episodes in every possible order, they asked a question that had perplexed combinatorial mathematicians for years
www.scientificamerican.com
March 6, 2025 at 5:38 PM
I guessed the anime involved before reading😃 but incorrectly assumed which set of episodes would be looked at (I thought it would just be the "Endless Eight" time loop ones). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
The Chambers Dictionary is a thorough, easy-to-read dictionary with a number of humorous definitions sprinkled about. encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
February 11, 2024 at 3:34 PM
The Chambers Dictionary is a thorough, easy-to-read dictionary with a number of humorous definitions sprinkled about. encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Most TTS systems either sound robotic or attempt to deepfake a real human voice. I'm working on a chaotic text-to-speech web app that intersperses one- and two-word sound quotes throughout. The Echololiac - encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/echololiac/
December 19, 2023 at 3:56 AM
Most TTS systems either sound robotic or attempt to deepfake a real human voice. I'm working on a chaotic text-to-speech web app that intersperses one- and two-word sound quotes throughout. The Echololiac - encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/echololiac/
A Moist Marketing Campaign, as Kraft Mayo Attempts to Influence Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
December 14, 2023 at 10:33 PM
A Moist Marketing Campaign, as Kraft Mayo Attempts to Influence Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023 is "authentic" - here a look at how that word has added meanings and connotations over the past three centuries: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year 2023 | Encyclopædia Fortuita
encyclopaedia-fortuita.com
November 30, 2023 at 6:27 PM
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023 is "authentic" - here a look at how that word has added meanings and connotations over the past three centuries: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
My self-made off/sleep screen image. 😁 The Century Dictionary serving as backdrop with pictures of some of my favorite books.
November 12, 2023 at 12:17 PM
My self-made off/sleep screen image. 😁 The Century Dictionary serving as backdrop with pictures of some of my favorite books.
Got a new eReader - a Boox Page, which I put Koreader on - to replace my old Pocketbook, which was great for letting me read English and German with big fonts but just could not handle Japanese dictionary usage. Smaller than I expected (I have no sense of scale), but so far liking it.
November 12, 2023 at 12:13 PM
Got a new eReader - a Boox Page, which I put Koreader on - to replace my old Pocketbook, which was great for letting me read English and German with big fonts but just could not handle Japanese dictionary usage. Smaller than I expected (I have no sense of scale), but so far liking it.
This weekend we went to see Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in a most excellent format: laser light show!
November 6, 2023 at 3:19 AM
This weekend we went to see Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in a most excellent format: laser light show!
A small sampling of the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood; I feel like there is a marked increase in decorations this year in terms of both quantity and quality.
October 29, 2023 at 5:47 PM
A small sampling of the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood; I feel like there is a marked increase in decorations this year in terms of both quantity and quality.
I haven’t knit anything in a long time. Trying to make “Flip-Flop Winter Socks.” First time using a Turkish Cast-On.
October 27, 2023 at 4:28 AM
I haven’t knit anything in a long time. Trying to make “Flip-Flop Winter Socks.” First time using a Turkish Cast-On.
From 「三省堂国語辞典から消えたことば辞典」(The Dictionary of Words that have Disappeared from the Sanseido Dictionary), both “laserdisc” and “lexicographer” were removed with the Seventh Edition (2014). I feel attacked by that edition😋
October 15, 2023 at 8:47 PM
From 「三省堂国語辞典から消えたことば辞典」(The Dictionary of Words that have Disappeared from the Sanseido Dictionary), both “laserdisc” and “lexicographer” were removed with the Seventh Edition (2014). I feel attacked by that edition😋
Tokyo Tower and some shopping: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
October 12, 2023 at 11:30 PM
Tokyo Tower and some shopping: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Casio inventions and Gundam: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
October 12, 2023 at 11:29 PM
Casio inventions and Gundam: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Traveling to Tokyo and Asakusa: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
October 12, 2023 at 11:28 PM
Traveling to Tokyo and Asakusa: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
Michael Ende and prehistoric elephants: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...
October 12, 2023 at 11:27 PM
Michael Ende and prehistoric elephants: encyclopaedia-fortuita.com/index.php/20...