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Month: July 2021

Disney Studios
By The Generalist Posted on July 31, 2021July 28, 2021

From the archives: Disney

Mickey Mouse’s first words, Mel Blanc’s exceptionally short Disney career, the 1941 Disney Strike, and the alternative names for the seven dwarfs.

Categories: From the archives
By The Generalist Posted on July 30, 2021July 28, 2021

Climate crisis knitting

How do you visualise climate change simply and evocatively? Well, you could knit it.

Categories: 21st century history, Earth science, Fashion & design
By The Generalist Posted on July 29, 2021July 28, 2021

Shallowest sea

The Sea of Azov, between Ukraine and Russia, is never more than fourteen metres deep. Parts of the sea are shallow enough to wade across.

Categories: Earth science, Europe, North & Central Asia
By The Generalist Posted on July 28, 2021September 18, 2021

Boycotting New Zealand

In 1976 most African countries boycotted the Olympics because the games would not ban New Zealand.

Categories: 20th century history, Africa, Games & sport, North & Central America, Oceania, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on July 27, 2021July 24, 2021

The do in do-re-mi

The solfège system teaches Western music scales: do re mi fa sol la ti do. But who is “do”?

Categories: Early modern history, Europe, Medieval history, Music
By The Generalist Posted on July 26, 2021July 24, 2021

Nobody’s land

Bir Tawil is a wedge of land between Egypt and Sudan. Neither wants to claim Bir Tawil: it is one of the only unclaimed territories in the world.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Africa, Europe, Politics & law
Wall Street
By The Generalist Posted on July 25, 2021July 18, 2021

Featured category: Early modern history

The suspicious origins of Wall Street’s wall, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s abandoned children, the crossroads killings of Sengoku era Japan, and Renaissance fart jokes.

Categories: Featured category
Kofi Annan
By The Generalist Posted on July 24, 2021July 18, 2021

From the archives: Names and the nameless

How we know Kofi Annan was born on Friday, the first named author in history, the peculiar names of American pilgrims, and the names of the biblical nameless.

Categories: From the archives
By The Generalist Posted on July 23, 2021July 18, 2021

The gannet’s dive

Gannets have evolved some very strange adaptations that make them some of the best divers in the natural world.

Categories: Animals, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on July 22, 2021July 18, 2021

The Daylight Comet

Everyone eagerly anticipated Halley’s comet showing up in April 1910. It came as quite a surprise, then, when another brighter comet appeared just four months before: the Daylight Comet.

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy
By The Generalist Posted on July 21, 2021July 16, 2021

Islamic banking

By most modern interpretations, Islamic law forbids charging interest. So some modern banks have found ways to profitably lend money without it.

Categories: Economics & business, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on July 20, 2021July 15, 2021

The Tristan chord

Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde set the course of 20th century classical music by keeping the audience in suspense for four hours with a single unresolved chord.

Categories: 19th century history, Europe, Film & television, Music
By The Generalist Posted on July 19, 2021July 15, 2021

Doomsday Glacier

Thwaites Glacier, in West Antarctica, is roughly the size of Florida. This glacier alone contributes four percent of the global rise in sea levels, and if it melted completely oceans would be 65cm higher – hence its alternative name, the Doomsday Glacier.

Categories: Earth science, The poles
Yaa Asantewaa
By The Generalist Posted on July 18, 2021July 15, 2021

Featured category: Africa

Uganda’s first action film, Cameroon’s lake of death, the resurrection of the extinct quagga, and the war over the (literal and physical) throne of the Ashanti Empire.

Categories: Featured category
Tab key
By The Generalist Posted on July 17, 2021July 14, 2021

From the archives: Programming languages

Shakespeare (the programming language), the invisible programming language, programming in 282 different languages at the same time, and the programmer’s Fizz Buzz challenge.

Categories: From the archives
By The Generalist Posted on July 16, 2021July 14, 2021

Death of the pyramid

The pyramid of Amanishakheto stood for nearly two thousand years, until an Italian looter blew it up.

Categories: Africa, Ancient history, Architecture

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