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Month: September 2020

Líf and Lífthrasir
By The Generalist Posted on September 30, 2020January 25, 2023

Norse Adams and Eves

In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla were the first humans of this world. After Ragnarök, Líf and Lífþrasir will be the first humans of the next world.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Europe, Literature, Places, Religion & belief
Renault
By The Generalist Posted on September 29, 2020April 28, 2021

Intentional crash

On the 14th lap of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, racer Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed into a wall. He did it on purpose.

Categories: Games & sport, Places, Southeast Asia
Darien Gap
By The Generalist Posted on September 28, 2020September 27, 2020

The Pan-American gap

You can drive from northern Alaska all the way to Tierra Del Fuego in southern Argentina… except for a 106km gap in the road between the two.

Categories: North & Central America, Places, South America
Basmati
By The Generalist Posted on September 27, 2020January 25, 2023

Thwarting the biopirates

India prevented people patenting their foods, traditional medicines, and yoga poses by recording them all in an online database: 34 million pages’ worth.

Categories: Animals, Economics & business, Food & agriculture, Health & medicine, Places, Plants, Politics & law, Sciences, South Asia, Technology
Fierljeppen
By The Generalist Posted on September 26, 2020April 21, 2021

Canal vaulting

The Dutch sport fierljeppen is just like pole vaulting. Except you don’t run with the pole, you’re allowed to climb while you’re in the air, and you’ve vaulting over a canal.

Categories: Europe, Games & sport, Places
Cloud hole
By The Generalist Posted on September 25, 2020January 25, 2023

Punch a hole in the sky

Aircraft can punch cloud holes that are much larger than the plane itself.

Categories: Earth science, Physics & chemistry, Sciences
Miriam Makeba
By The Generalist Posted on September 24, 2020January 25, 2023

Click languages

Clicks are used in several languages of southern and eastern Africa, most famously in Xhosa. The sounds make Xhosa songs and tongue twisters sound amazing.

Categories: Africa, Arts & recreation, Language, Music, Places
Teeth
By The Generalist Posted on September 23, 2020January 25, 2023

The biter bit

Sigurd the Mighty, Earl of Orkney, died in 892 CE when he was bitten by the severed head of his foe, Máelbrigte the Bucktoothed.

Categories: Europe, History, Medieval history, Military, Places, Politics & law
Shaolin
By The Generalist Posted on September 22, 2020April 28, 2021

The real touch of death

Chinese wuxia (and derivative Western) fiction describes the touch of death, a single blow that can kill an opponent. Surprisingly, this is actually possible.

Categories: Arts & recreation, East Asia, Film & television, Health & medicine, Literature, Places, Sciences
Big Ben
By The Generalist Posted on September 21, 2020April 17, 2021

From the barricades

Twelve years before Orson Welles’ classic radio play The War of the Worlds, BBC Radio broadcast a hoax revolution in which government ministers were murdered and Big Ben demolished by trench mortars.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Europe, Places, Politics & law, Theatre
Griot
By The Generalist Posted on September 20, 2020January 25, 2023

Bards of Mali

The Epic of Sundiata, describing the rise of the first ruler of the Mali Empire, was passed down by griots – West African bards – for over six hundred years before it was written down.

Categories: Africa, Arts & recreation, History, Literature, Medieval history, Music, Places
Liu Hui circle
By The Generalist Posted on September 19, 2020January 25, 2023

Pi approximation

The closest approximation of Pi for nearly a thousand years was calculated by Chinese mathematician Zu Chongzhi around 480 CE, using an algorithm developed by Liu Hui.

Categories: Ancient history, East Asia, History, Mathematics & statistics, Places, Sciences
Phobos
By The Generalist Posted on September 18, 2020April 17, 2021

Rubble moon

The Martian moon Phobos is thought to be a pile of rubble that’s nearly a third empty space inside. It circles its planet twice a Martian day, and in a few million years it will disintegrate into rings.

Categories: Astronomy, Sciences
Pesto
By The Generalist Posted on September 17, 2020September 12, 2020

Out of many, pesto

The United States motto, e pluribus unum, appears in several classical sources. In one of them, it’s part of a recipe for pesto.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Food & agriculture, Literature, North & Central America, Places, Politics & law, Sciences
Telegram messengers
By The Generalist Posted on September 16, 2020April 28, 2021

Telegraph code

T CODE CD CNDNS LG MSGS TO SV MON WN SDG TM BI CBL.

Categories: 19th century history, History, Language, North & Central America, Places, Sciences, Technology
Atlantropa
By The Generalist Posted on September 15, 2020January 25, 2023

Dam the Mediterranean

In 1929 Bavarian architect Herman Sörgel proposed building a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar and shrinking the Mediterranean.

Categories: Africa, Earth science, Europe, Places, Politics & law, Sciences

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