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Month: October 2020

Nosferatu
By The Generalist Posted on October 31, 2020April 17, 2021

The extinction of Nosferatu

The classic horror film Nosferatu was nearly lost forever because of Bram Stoker’s widow.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Europe, Film & television, Literature, Places, Politics & law
Surveyor 3
By The Generalist Posted on October 30, 2020April 28, 2021

Lunar garbage collection

The second mission to land on the Moon had garbage collection duty: they picked up the remains of a probe that had crashed there two years earlier.

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy, History, Sciences, Technology
Pregnancy test
By The Generalist Posted on October 29, 2020January 25, 2023

The false positive paradox

Consider a medical test for a disease suffered by 1% of the population, which has a 5% “false positive” error rate. If you test positive, what are the chances that you are actually ill? In fact, it’s less than 17%.

Categories: Health & medicine, Mathematics & statistics, Sciences
Rousseau
By The Generalist Posted on October 28, 2020May 30, 2022

Rousseau’s children

Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a seminal text on education and raising children. He also abandoned five of his own children soon after their births.

Categories: Early modern history, Education & philosophy, Europe, History, Places
Narrowboat
By The Generalist Posted on October 27, 2020January 25, 2023

The rise and fall and rise of British canals

The national canal network of Britain powered its Industrial Revolution, then fell into disuse, and then rose again in the late 20th century.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Early modern history, Economics & business, Europe, History, Places, Sciences, Technology
South Pole dome
By The Generalist Posted on October 26, 2020January 25, 2023

Death at the South Pole

In May 2000, astrophysicist Dr. Rodney Marks fell ill and died at the geographic South Pole. His cause of death is known, but the reason for his death remains a mystery.

Categories: 20th century history, History, Places, The poles
Ma'kech
By The Generalist Posted on October 25, 2020January 25, 2023

Living brooch

Tourists in Mexico can buy brooches made of bejewelled ironclad beetles. Still living bejewelled ironclad beetles.

Categories: Animals, Arts & recreation, Fashion & design, North & Central America, Places, Sciences
Eye sculpture
By The Generalist Posted on October 24, 2020October 23, 2020

Mind’s eye blind

Close your eyes and picture a bicycle. For some people, this is impossible.

Categories: Health & medicine, Sciences
Gustav III's costume
By The Generalist Posted on October 23, 2020October 22, 2020

Regicide at the masquerade

King Gustav III of Sweden was warned of assassins at his masquerade ball. He went anyway.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Early modern history, Europe, History, Music, Places, Politics & law
Big Bertha
By The Generalist Posted on October 22, 2020January 25, 2023

Oldest Earth rock

The oldest Earth rock was not found on the Earth.

Categories: Astronomy, Earth science, Sciences
Baltic Way
By The Generalist Posted on October 21, 2020April 28, 2021

Chain across the Baltic

In 1989 two million people formed a human chain stretching 675km from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, History, Places, Politics & law
Anvil firing
By The Generalist Posted on October 20, 2020April 28, 2021

Firing the anvils

On the day that Texas joined the Confederacy, a dissenting Texas Ranger was forced to fire anvils into the air with gunpowder. He was not the first to do this.

Categories: 19th century history, History, North & Central America, Places
Rolex
By The Generalist Posted on October 19, 2020October 15, 2020

Contradictory goods

One of the cardinal rules of microeconomics is that as the price of a good goes up, demand goes down. But Veblen goods and Giffen goods do the opposite.

Categories: Economics & business
By The Generalist Posted on October 18, 2020January 25, 2023

Update 5

Yes, it’s time once more for a quick set of updates.

Categories: Updates
Vedas
By The Generalist Posted on October 18, 2020April 28, 2021

Memory culture

Through sophisticated mnemonics and error-checking mechanisms the Vedas, the canonical religious texts of Hinduism, have been transmitted orally for three and a half thousand years with shocking precision in both word and sound.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Language, Literature, Places, Religion & belief, South Asia
NZ Parliament
By The Generalist Posted on October 17, 2020January 25, 2023

Electoral fairness

The Gallagher Index measures how well the makeup of a legislative body represents the proportion of votes cast to elect it. Some countries do this much better than others.

Categories: Europe, North & Central America, Oceania, Places, Politics & law, Sciences, Weights & measures

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