Samoan constitutional crisis (Part 1)
Samoa’s first female prime minister was elected this year despite the most dramatic and twist-filled constitutional crisis in the country’s history. [1 of 2]
Category: 21st century history
Big remade
Naani is a 2004 Telugu remake of the Tom Hanks film Big. I gotta tell you, though… it gets weird.
The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom
In 2004, in response to an Australian law defining marriage as between a man and a woman only, a group of activists declared independence and raised a rainbow flag over the Coral Sea Islands.
Personal carbon footprint
The “personal carbon footprint” concept was popularised by an oil company advertising campaign to divert attention away from their own climate-unfriendly practices.
Chimeric parents
During a child support dispute in 2002, a DNA test seemed to show that a mother was not the parent of her own biological children. The truth was stranger than anyone expected.
The worst move in chess
Earlier this year, the current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen deliberately played the worst opening move possible against the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura… who then deliberately played the worst possible response.
Climate crisis knitting
How do you visualise climate change simply and evocatively? Well, you could knit it.
The Yellowstone loophole
Thanks to a loophole in United States law, it may be possible to murder someone in a small section of Yellowstone National Park and get away with it.
None of the above
In the 2018 mayoral election for Makassar, Indonesia, Munafri Afiruddin was the only candidate, won a quarter of a million votes, and lost.
Left snail
The shells of almost all common garden snails coil to the right. Almost all.
Political plagiarism
Two German politicians resigned from office – in 2011 and 2013 – when their doctorates were revoked because of plagiarism.
The Year 2038 problem
The Y2K problem threatened to bring down computers worldwide twenty-one years ago. In another seventeen years, the Year 2038 problem may do the same.
Longest note
In 2017 Nigerian musician Femi Kuti set the world record for longest sustained saxophone note: fifty-one minutes and thirty-five seconds.
DNA lasso
In 2004 a new white blood cell defence mechanism was discovered: the cells extrude DNA threads like nets or lassos to trap and neutralise harmful bacteria.
Arecibo reply
In 1974 the Arecibo message was broadcast into space. In 2001 hoaxers made a reply “from aliens” in a field next to another observatory.
Cheating chess computer
In 2011, the World Computer Chess Championship banned the four-time champion Rybka chess engine for cheating.
The Generalist Academy 