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Month: May 2020

Harvey's
By The Generalist Posted on May 15, 2020April 28, 2021

Hotel for ransom

In 1980 three men placed a bomb packed with 450kg of dynamite in a Nevada hotel, hoping to collect a three million dollar ransom.

Categories: 20th century history, History, North & Central America, Places, Politics & law
Sleep
By The Generalist Posted on May 14, 2020January 25, 2023

Medieval sleep

The historian A. Roger Ekirch has argued that in Medieval Europe, and in many places prior to the Industrial Revolution, people would habitually wake up for an hour in the middle of the night.

Categories: Europe, Health & medicine, History, Medieval history, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on May 13, 2020January 25, 2023

Stages of death

When a human dies, they go through several distinct stages. In order: pale, cold, stiff, mottled, putrefied, decomposed, skeletonized.

Categories: Health & medicine, Sciences
Star Wars
By The Generalist Posted on May 12, 2020April 17, 2021

The forgotten Star Wars sequel

Leia and Luke crash land on Mimban, are arrested by stormtroopers, fall in with a pair of drunk aliens, escape, float on giant lily-pads, then chop off Darth Vader’s arm. This is the official 1978 novel sequel to Star Wars.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Film & television, Literature
Simeon II
By The Generalist Posted on May 11, 2020April 28, 2021

The final tsar

In 1946 Simeon II, the last person to bear the title “tsar,” was deposed and exiled from Bulgaria. Fifty years later, he returned and was elected prime minister.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, History, Medieval history, Places, Politics & law
Beckett
By The Generalist Posted on May 10, 2020April 17, 2021

Shortest play

Samuel Beckett wrote one of the shortest performed plays in the world on the back of a postcard. The first staging still managed to mess it up.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Theatre
Horoeka
By The Generalist Posted on May 9, 2020January 25, 2023

Bird spikes

A tree in New Zealand grows downwards-facing spikes for the first 15 or 20 years of its life; this is thought to be a remnant defence against gigantic now-extinct birds.

Categories: Animals, Oceania, Places, Plants, Sciences
Microphone
By The Generalist Posted on May 8, 2020April 17, 2021

The announcer’s test

Want to be on the radio? Try saying this first: “The seething sea ceased to see, then thus sufficeth thus.”

Categories: Arts & recreation, Film & television, Language
Bushfire
By The Generalist Posted on May 7, 2020April 17, 2021

Fire birds

Several bird species have been implicated in the spread of wildfire in Australia.

Categories: Animals, Earth science, Oceania, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on May 6, 2020April 21, 2021

Little wars and great wars

The sci-fi author and pacifist H. G. Wells invented one of the first miniature war games.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Games & sport, Literature, Military
Runaway stars
By The Generalist Posted on May 5, 2020April 17, 2021

Runaway stars

Most stars are part of galaxies, but some are hurled out of their usual orbits by supernovae, galactic collisions, and black holes. These are the runaway stars, some of the fastest stars known.

Categories: Astronomy, Sciences
Bisbee deportation
By The Generalist Posted on May 4, 2020April 28, 2021

Bisbee deportation

In 1917 a 2,200-strong posse kidnapped 1,300 striking miners from Bisbee in Arizona, loaded them into trains, and sent them to New Mexico. The sheriff then sealed off all the entrances to Bisbee and began purging the town.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, History, North & Central America, Places, Politics & law
Solveig Jacobsen
By The Generalist Posted on May 3, 2020April 28, 2021

First Antarcticans

Three people can lay claim to being the first person born in Antarctica: the first born in Antarctic waters, the first born on an Antarctic island, and the first born on the Antarctic mainland.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, History, Places, Politics & law, The poles
Hippo
By The Generalist Posted on May 2, 2020April 28, 2021

First hippo

When he arrived in London in 1850, Obaysch was the first hippopotamus in Europe for more than a millennium.

Categories: 19th century history, Ancient history, Animals, Europe, History, Places, Prehistory, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on May 1, 2020April 28, 2021

Baroque perspective

There is a courtyard gallery in the Palazzo Spada in Rome that is designed to fool the eye. It looks like it should be 37 metres long, but in fact it’s only 8 metres in total.

Categories: Architecture, Art, Arts & recreation, Europe, Mathematics & statistics, Places, Sciences

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