Oldest art
In 1939, a geologist dug up mammoth-ivory fragments inside a cave in Germany. Two weeks later, World War II began and they were forgotten. The fragments were reconstructed later, and turned out to be the earliest art in the world.
Month: May 2019
Samoa for the Samoans
Samoa won independence from New Zealand through a concerted campaign of non-violent resistance. The Mau movement used a wide range of clever tactics, including boycotts, beetle-breeding, and surrendering en masse – and it worked.
The first iron bridge
It’s a bad idea to make a bridge out of cast iron – it’s brittle and doesn’t handle tension well – but the very first major bridge of this type opened to traffic in 1781 and still stands today.
The elected joke
Jacob Haugaard, a Danish comedian, ran for parliament every national election from 1979 up until 1994 – as a joke, of course. But in 1994, he won.
The first vampire
Vampire folklore goes back a long way, but who was the first real person to be described as a vampire? That honour goes to Jure Grando, who died in 1656, and who was decapitated sixteen years later.
The divine move
It’s a move that comes around maybe once or twice in a lifetime. It’s perfect, it’s obvious but only in hindsight, it changes the course of the game. In the game Go, it’s the divine move.
The Irish invade Canada
1866: the Irish invade Canada. The Irish independence cause spilled over to the rest of the world in interesting ways. In the Battle of Ridgeway, Irish republicans attempted to seize Canada to pressure the UK to leave Ireland.
Renaissance fart jokes
Poggio Bracciolini was a key instigator of the Italian Renaissance: he recovered or rediscovered many of the Latin texts that would inspire that storied revival. Also, he loved a good fart joke.
Iceberg battleship
Take water, mix with wood pulp, and freeze. Now it’s as strong and tough as concrete, as long as it stays frozen. So, in World War II, serious plans were afoot to use it to build battleships out of ice.
The hidden rules of English
Why does “One nice little old round yellow brick house” sound fine, but “one brick nice round yellow old little house” sound weird? Welcome to the hidden rules of English.
Buy the moon
“Hey buddy, you wanna buy a moon? And not just any moon, but THE Moon?” You’ve just entered the crazy world of extraterrestrial real estate.
The biblical nameless
What was Noah’s wife’s name? Cain and Abel’s sisters? The sisters / cousins of Jesus? The bible doesn’t tell us, but traditions and later works suggest names for the biblical nameless.
Antifreeze wine
Remember that Simpsons episode where Bart went to France and witnessed antifreeze being added to wine? It had its basis in fact, although it got the country wrong.
Wurundjeri counting
The Aboriginal languages of southeast Australia have an ingenious counting system – there’s a physical mnemonic built directly into the language.
Hole in the head
Why would someone want a hole in the head? And how do we know that it was prehistoric surgery and not, you know, murder?
The Generalist Academy 