The Kiss Principle refers to the acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid or the more polite version, Keep It Short and Simple.  Albert Einstein:  “Everything should be made as simple as possible but no simpler.”  Leonardo Da Vinci:  “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  Just as there are a number of formulations of the Kiss Principle, so there have likewise been numerous formulations and reformulations of Occam’s Razor, including the following:  "If you have two theories that both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along."  "The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations."  "If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."  "The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."  One example of the opposite of the Kiss Principle are the cartoons of Rube Goldberg.  A Rube Goldberg machine is one which performs a very simple task in an over-engineered, complex fashion, usually by a chain of motion events.  See Rube Goldberg cartoon at http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/05/kiss-principle-and-occams-razor.html

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as an English ah! [ɑː] or oh! [oʊ], pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.  This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! [ʃː], there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract.  A vowel is also understood to be syllabic:  an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel.  A vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel is called a monophthong.  Monophthongs are sometimes called "pure" or "stable" vowels.  A vowel sound that glides from one quality to another is called a diphthong, and a vowel sound that glides successively through three qualities is a triphthong.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel 

American Offglide by Ben Trawick-Smith  The English language is notorious for ts diphthongs.  A diphthong, as many of you know, is two vowels combined into a single sound, as in the ‘i‘ in ‘kite’ or the ‘ou‘ in ‘mouth.’  Nearly every vowel of English can be pronounced as a diphthong in at least some variety of the language.  In fact, modern English largely emerged due to vowels that were once monophthongs (single vowels) shifting to become diphthongs.  (The ‘i’ and ‘night’ and the ‘ou’ in ‘mouth’ are two examples of these.)   Our language undergoes a perpetual process of single vowel phones evolving into two.  In American accents specifically, a specific kind of diphthong emerges.  Namely, monophthongs are often followed by a schwa, the little ‘uh’ sound in the word ‘afraid.’  We generally refer to this as a centering diphthong, with the schwa itself an example of an off-glide.  Perhaps the most famous example of an American centering diphthong is the New York pronunciation of ‘coffee’ and ‘thought,’ which are roughly ‘caw-uhfee’ and ‘thaw-uht’  http://dialectblog.com/2012/02/26/american-offglide/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

A great example of a homonym is the word sound, which is really four different words under the same spelling and pronunciation:  sound (what you hear), from Latin sonus (sound); sound (in good shape), from Old English gesund (sound, safe); sound (to measure), from Old French sonder (to plumb); sound (a narrow passage of water), from Old Norse sund (swimming, strait)

Homonyms typically start out as two very different words with different spellings.  After centuries of wear and tear, they get smoothed into lookalikes, that is, having the same spelling.

Dudley Buck's Forgotten Cryotron Computer by David C. Brock  In the 1950s, this MIT graduate student convinced engineers to build computers using superconducting magnetic switches instead of tubes or transistors.  Read an article that originally appeared in print as “Dudley Buck and the Computer That Never Was” at http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/dudley-bucks-forgotten-cryotron-computer

Dr. Dudley Allen Buck (1927–1959) was an electrical engineer and inventor of components for high-speed computing devices in the 1950s.  He is best known for invention of the cryotron, a superconductive computer component that is operated in liquid helium at a temperature near absolute zero.  Other inventions were ferroelectric memory, content addressable memory, non-destructive sensing of magnetic fields, and, development of writing printed circuits with a beam of electrons.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley_Allen_Buck  

NOTE that I assume Dudley Allen Buck is related to the American organist and composer Dudley Buck (1839-1909) but have not been able to find any information to confirm this.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has finally admitted that forcing users to press the Control-Alt-Delete key combination to log into a PC was a mistake.  Gates explains the key combination is designed to prevent other apps from faking the login prompt and stealing a password.  "It was a mistake," Gates admits to an audience left laughing at his honesty.  "We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM keyboard design didn't wanna give us our single button."  David Bradley, an engineer who worked on the original IBM PC, invented the combination which was originally designed to reboot a PC.  "I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous," Bradley said in an interview previously:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lg7w8gAXQ&feature=youtu.be   leaving Bill Gates looking rather awkward.  To this day the combination still exists in Windows 8, allowing users to lock a machine or access the task manager.  While Windows 8 defaults to a new login screen, it's still possible to use the traditional Control-Alt-Delete requirement and a number of businesses running on Windows XP and Windows 7 will still use it every day.  Tom Warren  http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/26/4772680/bill-gates-admits-ctrl-alt-del-was-a-mistake

In a striking about-face, the New York Public Library has abandoned its much-disputed renovation plan to turn part of its research flagship on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street into a circulating library and instead will refurbish the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library, several library trustees said.  “When the facts change, the only right thing to do as a public-serving institution is to take a look with fresh eyes and see if there is a way to improve the plans and to stay on budget,” Anthony W. Marx, the library’s president, said on May 7, 2014.  The renovation of the flagship, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, would have replaced the book stacks under the building’s main reading room with the new lending library. The project was to be paid for with $150 million from New York City and proceeds from the sale of the Mid-Manhattan Library, at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, and the Science, Industry and Business Library in the former B. Altman building, on Madison Avenue at 34th Street.  Robin Pogrebin  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/arts/design/public-library-abandons-plan-to-revamp-42nd-street-building.html?_r=0

Every language, culture, and religion has words that convey more than one simple idea.  Even though such words often have several layers of meaning, there seems to never be confusion as to what is being said.  However, if you were to ask a dozen people to explain, e.g., “love,” “happiness,” or “success,” you'll likely hear a dozen different definitions or descriptions. The same is true of the Chinese word "Tao," which is often translated as "way" or "path." Although there are many definitions of Tao, there is also an overarching understanding that it communicates an entire philosophy, i.e., an outlook on the fundamental nature of life and The Universe.  For example, early Taoist philosophers were heavily influenced by nature and determined that everything has a complementary opposite and can only be understood by comparing it to its opposite.  Day is only day in relation to night; cold is so only in relation to heat; soft is only soft in relation to hard.  By observing nature’s processes, The Taoist can come to some understanding about the meaning of our lives and about our place in the world, as all things are interdependent.  (a short definition of the Chinese word, "Tao" in an announcement of an upcoming law conference at Howard on the work of law professor.)  Thank you, muse reader.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1146  May 9, 2014  On this date in 1945, the Channel Islands were liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.  On this date in 1946, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicated and was succeeded by Umberto II.