It’s time for another update on the state of the blog.
1. Thank you again
As always, thank you so much for reading, sharing, and commenting – either on this site, on the accompanying Facebook page, or via the Twitter feed. Particular thanks to the people who have shared interesting topics with me! I have so many great posts coming up thanks to the time and generosity of readers like you.
I also wanted to thank the websites, podcasts, and mailing lists that have shared some of the posts on this site. Thank you to
- Samuel Arbesman, for his most complimentary words in the fantastic newsletter Samuel Arbesman’s Cabinet of Wonders.
- Patrick Tanguay, for linking to second-fastest animal while guest-hosting on Kottke. Check out his newsletter!
- Filthy Light Thief, for featuring the website on Metafilter.
- Jessamyn West and Josh Millard, for mentioning the website on the Metafilter podcast.
- The Snakes and Ladders newsletter, for linking to my post on the sinking of the Vasa
- Margaret McGaffey Fisk, for linking to the site a couple of times in her blog.
- Jon Bell, for mentioning the site in his list of people having fun on the Internet. I am having fun.
I’m sure that I’ve missed some names here, or messed up some pronouns – apologies, if either is the case.
2. Updates on previous topics
As is my tradition (twice is a tradition, right?), here are some updates on topics previously covered on the Generalist Academy.
Surprising eponyms – David S. observes that macadamia nuts and tarmac are both named for John MacAdam, although it’s two different John MacAdams.
Parahawking – a friend of mine, after reading the blog post, reported that he had actually been flying with Adam Hill in Nepal. Crazy coincidence.
Oldest art – it’s not the oldest figurative art any more! An older example has just been discovered and dated in Sulawesi, Indonesia: earliest hunting scene in prehistory
Decimal time – I didn’t mention it in the post, but there’s a website that will tell you what time it is right now in decimal: Decimal time now!
3. Simultaneity
Today’s post was on simultaneous discovery. It’s one of my biggest fears for this website, that I’ll write a post in advance and then someone else will coincidentally write about the same topic before mine is published. Well, it finally happened. Except in reverse.
Four days after I wrote about the second-fastest animal, the same topic was mentioned in the radio programme Engines of Our Ingenuity (as observed on Twitter).
One week after I wrote about ice delivery across the Sahara, it was mentioned in No Such Thing as a Fish Episode 293.
In both cases, I assume that it’s just a coincidence, that we have both picked up on the same topic at roughly the same time independently. Which is great! No-one owns these – or any – topics, I’m always delighted to see interesting things get a wide audience.
The Generalist Academy 