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Month: November 2020

By The Generalist Posted on November 30, 2020November 29, 2020

Pope vs. music

In 1324, Pope John XXII issued a papal bull condemning the excesses of modern popular music.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Europe, History, Medieval history, Music, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 29, 2020January 25, 2023

Suffragette medals

When British suffragettes were released from prison, they got medals.

Categories: 20th century history, Arts & recreation, Europe, Fashion & design, History, Military, Places, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on November 28, 2020November 27, 2020

Falling bullets

In many parts of the world it is traditional to celebrate by firing guns in the air. But what happens to the bullets?

Categories: Physics & chemistry, Sciences, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on November 27, 2020November 26, 2020

Hyperbolic crochet

In 1997, professor of mathematics and crochet enthusiast Daina Taimiņa found a way to join those two passions in order to craft durable sections of hyperbolic surfaces.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Fashion & design, Mathematics & statistics, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 26, 2020January 25, 2023

Fewest chromosomes and fatherless ants

The jack jumper ant of south-eastern Australia has a nasty sting, can jump five times its own body length, and has the fewest chromosomes of any living thing.

Categories: Animals, Oceania, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 25, 2020November 24, 2020

Mona Lisa, shaved

In 1919, Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache and goatee on a postcard of the Mona Lisa, renamed it with a bawdy French pun L. H. O. O. Q., and called it art. Half a century later, he framed an unmodified Mona Lisa postcard and named it L. H. O. O. Q. Shaved.

Categories: Art, Arts & recreation, Europe, Places
By The Generalist Posted on November 24, 2020April 17, 2021

Eclipse cycle

The saros is a measurement of time equal to 6585 days (plus one third of a day). It is the time between identical eclipses.

Categories: Astronomy, Sciences, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on November 23, 2020April 17, 2021

Gut parka

Up near the Arctic Circle, the best waterproof parkas are made out of guts.

Categories: Animals, Arts & recreation, Fashion & design, North & Central America, Places, Sciences, The poles
By The Generalist Posted on November 22, 2020November 21, 2020

A fake place becomes real

Cartographers will sometimes insert fake locations in order to catch plagiarism of their maps. But sometimes those fake locations then become real.

Categories: Economics & business, North & Central America, Places
By The Generalist Posted on November 21, 2020April 28, 2021

Sparrow smashing

In 1958 Mao Zedong declared war on sparrows. Although he won that battle, China lost the war.

Categories: 20th century history, Animals, East Asia, Food & agriculture, History, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 20, 2020November 19, 2020

The order of the Quran

The Quran contains 114 chapters, but they are arranged neither chronologically nor thematically. Instead, they go from longest to shortest.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Literature, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 19, 2020January 25, 2023

Hepcat-orooni

Slim Gaillard had one of the more remarkable lives of the 20th century: when he wasn’t inventing words or writing songs about cement mixers he was jamming with Charlie Parker, running bootlegged whiskey in a hearse, or wowing Jack Kerouac in On the Road.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Music, North & Central America, Places
By The Generalist Posted on November 18, 2020April 28, 2021

Pilot out the window

In 1990 a British Airways plane heading to Spain had a windscreen malfunction mid-flight. The captain was sucked out of the gap, but a flight attendant caught his belt and the plane landed safely with the captain stuck halfway outside.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, History, Places, Sciences, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on November 17, 2020April 28, 2021

Dancing corpse

George Forster was executed for murder in 1803. Later that same day his corpse was dancing, thanks to Luigi Galvani’s nephew.

Categories: 19th century history, Arts & recreation, Europe, Health & medicine, History, Literature, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 16, 2020April 28, 2021

Coffee crisis

Vietnam is the second-largest producer of coffee in the world because of a crisis in 1970s East Germany.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe, Food & agriculture, History, Places, Politics & law, Sciences, Southeast Asia
By The Generalist Posted on November 15, 2020April 17, 2021

Natural nuclear power

Enrico Fermi switched on the first human-made nuclear reactor in 1942, but the first natural nuclear reactor on Earth occurred 1.7 billion years earlier.

Categories: Africa, Earth science, Physics & chemistry, Places, Sciences

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