Comic syntax
Comic books have their own structure, conventions, and language. In a seminal 1988 essay, two cartoonists broke down elements of this syntax using a single Nancy comic strip.
Month: April 2019
Airplane boots
Flying airplanes gather ice. It’s cold up there. That ice can get into the machinery and cause significant danger. So how do you keep the ice away? The same way we do: with rubber boots.
The disappearance of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is perhaps the most famous mystery and crime writer of the 20th century. In 1923 she started a real-life mystery of her own that has persisted to this day: she disappeared.
Build your own magic square
A magic square is a grid of numbers in which any row, column, or diagonal adds up to the same total. They look complex, but it’s actually easy to design your own using the Siamese method.
Science wars: Fixists vs. mobilists
A hundred years ago the idea that the continents could move was controversial. Among the “fixists” were some of the luminaries of geology and geophysics in the early 20th century. But history has proven them very, very wrong.
Shin-kicking
Everyone loves to give someone’s shins a good kick (no? just me then?) but leave it to the English to make it into a sport.
Medieval rocket launchers
We think of rocket launchers as a modern invention, but the Koreans were using them four hundred years ago. The hwacha could fire two hundred rockets at once, blowing up enemies more than a hundred metres away.
Staircase wit
Ever thought of the perfect comeback, but thought of it way too late? Then you’ve got a case of staircase wit.
Power of Women
The Power of Women is a topos (“topic”) of medieval and Renaissance Western art that inverted traditional gender roles. While most male painters saw this as comedy, prominent Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi turned it on its head and used her art to portray “courageous, rebellious, and powerful” women.
Columbus’ UFO
In 1492, the Columbus expedition sighted and visited land. We’re still not sure which island in the Caribbean he landed on, but did he see a UFO the night before?
The sewing machine dream
Elias Howe Jr. patented the modern sewing machine in 1846. Its innovative “lockstitch” mechanism was revolutionary. And, apparently, it came to Howe in a dream.
Short hand
The hand is a flexible and convenient mnemonic device. The knuckle mnemonic tells us the number of days in a month, but a musical mnemomic called the Guidonian hand has been around for eight hundred years.
The river under the Sahara
Searching for oil in the 1950s, prospectors discovered huge supplies of ancient water under the Sahara. The Great Man-Made River (an enormous network of underground pipes) now brings that water to the major cities of Libya.
Rubber duck debugging
You’re writing a computer programme, and you need to debug it. Why not use a rubber duck?
The Generalist Academy 