Learn widely
For more than 1700 years, mithridate and theriac were Europe’s ultimate medicines. A concoction of up to sixty-four ingredients – including cinnamon, turpentine, and poppy – they were supposed to neutralise any poison or plague.
António de Oliveira Salazar served as prime minister and dictator of Portugal for 36 years. Following a head injury he was removed from office, but no-one told him and he died two years later still believing himself in charge.
Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci, inspired by fabulists Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, built the largest maze in the world.
The ruler of Medieval Venice was chosen by an exceptionally complex ten-step process of alternating random lots and elections.
In 1922 violinist Lev Tseitlin founded an orchestra according to Soviet principles of collective responsibility: it had no conductor.
The body of famed astronomer Tycho Brahe was dug up twice (in 1901 and 2010) to find out what killed him. The conclusion: he died of excessive politeness.
Winston Churchill invented an adult romper suit and then wore it everywhere during World War II.
The classic horror film Nosferatu was nearly lost forever because of Bram Stoker’s widow.
Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a seminal text on education and raising children. He also abandoned five of his own children soon after their births.
The national canal network of Britain powered its Industrial Revolution, then fell into disuse, and then rose again in the late 20th century.
King Gustav III of Sweden was warned of assassins at his masquerade ball. He went anyway.
In 1989 two million people formed a human chain stretching 675km from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius.
The Gallagher Index measures how well the makeup of a legislative body represents the proportion of votes cast to elect it. Some countries do this much better than others.
What does an American accent sound like to an Italian? The Italian song Prisencolinensinainciusol will show you.
Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli once teamed up to steal the Arno river.
In 1850 Jacques-Toussaint Benoît claimed to be able to send messages via telepathically linked snails. He could not.
The Generalist Academy 