From the archives: The two Koreas
The two Koreas’ black ops assassination teams; the North Korean who defected with a MiG jet; the involuntary park inside the demilitarised zone; and the single tree that set off an international stand-off.
Author: The Generalist
I live in Auckland, New Zealand, and am curious about most things.
The atom bomb memo
In March 1940 two physicists wrote a top secret memo describing, for the first time, just how to make an atom bomb.
An Anglo-Saxon in Middle Earth
In an early version of J. R. R. Tolkien’s stories, the tales of Middle Earth are brought to our world by Ottor Wǽfre, who would go on to be the father of both the author of Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain.
First piggy bank
The origins of the modern piggy bank are lost to history, but the oldest extant piggy bank comes from 12th century CE Java.
A world without banks
What would a country look like without banks? In 1970, all the banks in Ireland closed for half a year. In response, the Irish people set up their own exchange systems centred on (of course) pubs.
Original sin immunity
The first time you get sick with a virus can affect how your body responds to that virus for the rest of your life.
Featured category: 20th century history
The mistaken message that changed the course of the largest naval battle in history; the oldest artificial satellite still in orbit; the Cold War tunnels underneath Beijing; and the country that lost 80% of its land to strip-mining.
From the archives: The history of games
The oldest game in the world with the original rules; a game of pool with three “lives”; Medieval dice chess; and the forgotten chess pieces: couriers, henchmen, spies, and fools.
The disappearing Johns
In November 1974, Richard John Bingham (the Earl of Lucan) and John Stonehouse (a British MP) both disappeared after committing serious crimes. One was soon found, but only because he was mistaken for the other.
Nuclear icebreakers
Arktika, the second nuclear-powered icebreaker made by the Soviet Union, was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
Don’t trust the small numbers
In mathematics, the Pólya conjecture is true for every natural number up to 906,150,256… and then it’s not.
The Sorabji opus
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was so incensed at a poor 1936 performance of his epic work Opus clavicembalisticum (at that time the longest piano piece in history) that he banned it for forty years.
The Picasso Ransom
In 1986 the Australian Cultural Terrorists stole a Picasso from a Melbourne art gallery; they threatened to destroy the painting if the government did not create an art prize called the Picasso Ransom. The culprits were never found.
Featured category: North & Central Asia
The language with more consonants and fewer vowels than almost any other; the angry letters between the pope and the khan; the flying submarine designed to infiltrate the Black Sea; and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s songwriter credit for “All By Myself.”
From the archives: Plane crashes and close calls
The plane that landed with the pilot halfway out the front windscreen; the very first fatal plane crash; the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon; and the Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel 12,000 metres off the ground.
Pig toilet
The pig toilet was once a key sanitation building in rural China, Korea, and India. It was ruthlessly efficient, combining a toilet for people with a sty for pigs.
The Generalist Academy 