Rabbit starvation and polar bear poisoning
If you happen to be living out in the wilderness, don’t rely on a diet of rabbit meat, and definitely don’t eat polar bear livers.
Author: The Generalist
I live in Auckland, New Zealand, and am curious about most things.
German troublemakers
In the 1865 German children’s book Max and Moritz, the titular troublemakers blow up a teacher, are baked in an oven, and finally get ground up in a flour mill and eaten by ducks.
Continent of stability (Part 2)
Beyond the boundaries of the natural elements may lie a whole new form of matter without protons or neutrons: quark matter. [2 of 2]
Continent of stability (Part 1)
Nuclear physicists predict an “island of stability” beyond the current end of the periodic table. But there’s another possibility even further out: an exotic “continent of stability.” [1 of 2]
From the archives: Frogs and toads
The frog that breaks its own bones to use as claws; the frogs that raised tadpoles in their stomachs; the musical frog that works in real estate advertising; and the flattest toad in the world.
Buffalo racing
Kambala is a race with a difference: the winner may not be decided directly on speed, but rather on how high they can kick up water.
School bus kidnapping
In 1976, twenty-six children riding in a California school bus were kidnapped at gunpoint and hidden inside a truck that was buried in a quarry. Twenty-seven hours later, after sixteen hours underground, they escaped.
Featured category: Mathematics & statistics
The largest number; how to build your own magic square; why a gambler should believe in God; and proof that 0.999… is equal to 1.
Space weather
When the solar wind hits the Earth, it can set off space storms, space hurricanes, and even space tornadoes.
American samurai colony
In 1869, some samurai and their families set up a colony in California. Although it only lasted two years, it was the first permanent Japanese settlement in the United States.
Featured category: Europe
The mosque in the middle of the Parthenon; the book smugglers of Russian-occupied Lithuania; the fake-real bridges of the Euro banknotes; and the time Da Vinci and Machiavelli conspired to steal a river.
Stats 3
This website is three years old today.
Most and least popular birthdays
In the English-speaking world, more people are born in September than any other month of the year; the least popular birthdays (outside of leap days) are around Christmas, New Year, and other public holidays.
Viking sunstone
The Vikings navigated by the position of the sun. But what did they do when it was cloudy?
The scientists of Mars
When asked why we have no proof of extraterrestrial life, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard joked that Martians were already among us… they just called themselves Hungarians.
First piano
The arpicembalo (harp-harpsichord) of Bartolomeo Cristofori could play notes both loud and quiet, which the harpsichord could not. It was the first piano.
The Generalist Academy 