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Month: December 2021

By The Generalist Posted on December 31, 2021December 30, 2021

Buddhist poetry contest

According to the Platform Sutra, the fifth patriarch of Chan Buddhism held a poetry contest to determine his successor. But it became a contest for the soul of Chan Buddhism itself.

Categories: East Asia, Medieval history, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on December 30, 2021December 30, 2021

Abnormal normal dice

A pair of Sicherman dice have numbers ranging from 1 to 8 on their faces, but roll two of them together and they produce the same totals as a pair of normal dice.

Categories: Games & sport, Mathematics & statistics
By The Generalist Posted on December 29, 2021December 28, 2021

Temporary island

Pobeda Ice Island was first discovered in 1840. It was seen again in the 1910s, but was gone by the late 1920s. By the 1960s it was back, only to disappear again in the 1970s.

Categories: 20th century history, Earth science, Oceania, The poles
By The Generalist Posted on December 28, 2021January 25, 2023

Spite triangle

On a sidewalk in New York City is a triangle mosaic about 70cm wide. It is perhaps the smallest parcel of private land in the city, and it exists entirely because of spite.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on December 27, 2021December 26, 2021

Lords of the Windrush

On June 22, 1948, eight hundred and two African-Caribbean migrants arrived in Britain on the HMT Empire Windrush. Amongst this historic first wave of “reverse colonization” were the soon-to-be-famous calypsonian singer Lord Kitchener.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Music, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 26, 2021January 25, 2023

Featured category: Religion & belief

Seven and a half years of the Talmud; Saint Nick and the Christmas cannibals; the reason Buddha would not play Jenga; and the church ladder in Jerusalem that has stayed in the same place since 1728.

Categories: Featured category
Annunciation
By The Generalist Posted on December 25, 2021January 25, 2023

From the archives: Christmas songs

The price of twelve days of Christmas; the Christmas cannibalism song; the birth of the slow TV Yule log; and the mistranslation that led to some of the world’s most famous Christmas carols.

Categories: From the archives
By The Generalist Posted on December 24, 2021December 22, 2021

Yule animals

Going from house to house singing Christmas carols is a long-held tradition. But what if the wassailers turn up with a goat or a horse’s head? And what if they take you with them?

Categories: 19th century history, Animals, Early modern history, Europe, Medieval history, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on December 23, 2021December 21, 2021

Posthumous King Wenceslas

The Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas has a deceptive title. The real Wenceslas’ reputation for goodness was mainly posthumous, as was his rank and title. Also he may have been murdered by his brother after a drunken fight.

Categories: Europe, Medieval history, Music, Politics & law, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on December 22, 2021December 20, 2021

Unique bacteria

One variety of bacteria has only ever been isolated from the wreck of the RMS Titanic; another type of bacteria has only ever been found inside clean rooms used to assemble spacecraft.

Categories: Animals, Plants, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on December 21, 2021December 20, 2021

Redacted art book

From 1966 until 2016, English artist Tom Phillips created a new story out of the Victorian novel A Human Document; he did not add any words, but selectively drew or painted over each of its pages to surface something entirely new.

Categories: 20th century history, 21st century history, Art, Europe, Literature
By The Generalist Posted on December 20, 2021December 19, 2021

The magician’s toilet

John Nevil Maskelyne was a turn of the century stage magician who created the first levitation trick, built an automaton that could play whist, revealed the secrets of card sharks, and invented the pay toilet.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe, Technology, Theatre
Pelican
By The Generalist Posted on December 19, 2021January 25, 2023

Featured category: Animals

The pelican in her piety; the oldest individual animal on the planet; the insects with natural gears; and the lizards who play evolutionary rock-paper-scissors.

Categories: Featured category
By The Generalist Posted on December 18, 2021January 25, 2023

From the archives: All that jazz

The beautiful slang of a remarkable hepcat-orooni; Alice Coltrane’s jazz harp; jazz in 19/4 (!) time; and the fascist jazz of World War II.

Categories: From the archives
By The Generalist Posted on December 17, 2021December 16, 2021

Theatre of silence

Andrea Bocelli’s Teatro del Silenzio only hosts one concert a year; every other day, the open-air theatre is silent.

Categories: 21st century history, Architecture, Europe, Music, Theatre
By The Generalist Posted on December 16, 2021January 25, 2023

Experimental pi

If you have a piece of striped paper and some sticks, you can estimate the value of pi through a simple experiment.

Categories: Mathematics & statistics

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