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Category: Food & agriculture

By The Generalist Posted on June 2, 2022January 25, 2023

Happiest meal

McDonald’s iconic Happy Meal came to us via a Chilean-Guatemalan restauranteur, a Missouri advertising agent, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Film & television, Food & agriculture, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on March 23, 2022March 24, 2022

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.

Categories: Animals, Early modern history, Food & agriculture, Health & medicine, The poles
By The Generalist Posted on March 10, 2022January 25, 2023

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.

Categories: Animals, Food & agriculture, Games & sport, South Asia
By The Generalist Posted on March 1, 2022February 28, 2022

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.

Categories: 19th century history, East Asia, Food & agriculture, Military, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on January 24, 2022January 25, 2023

Eventful pub

There are few pubs in the world that can claim to be the site of the founding of a religious denomination, the creation of a style of beer, and also a murder by a famous gangster. But there’s at least one pub that can.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Europe, Food & agriculture, Politics & law, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on November 10, 2021November 9, 2021

Eyeglasses for chickens

In the early 20th century, millions of chickens wore rose-coloured eyeglasses so they wouldn’t turn into cannibals.

Categories: 20th century history, Animals, Food & agriculture, North & Central America, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on September 13, 2021September 11, 2021

Llama berserkers

According to animal breeders you should avoid bottle-feeding baby llamas, because when they grow up they might go berserk.

Categories: Animals, Food & agriculture, South America
By The Generalist Posted on August 30, 2021August 29, 2021

Hedgehog flavour

In 1981 Phillip Lewis released potato chips flavoured like roasted hedgehog. In 1982 the UK government prosecuted him for false advertising because the chips did not contain real hedgehog.

Categories: 20th century history, Animals, Europe, Food & agriculture, Medieval history, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on June 24, 2021June 24, 2021

Best beer

Some of the best beers in the world (according to aficionados) are also among the rarest beers in the world.

Categories: Europe, Food & agriculture, North & Central America, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on May 24, 2021January 25, 2023

White sausage equator

The white sausage equator (Weißwurstäquator) divides northern and southern Germany. The rösti curtain (Röstigraben) divides German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland.

Categories: Europe, Food & agriculture, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on March 24, 2021January 25, 2023

Turnip-mustard-cabbage triangle

Turnips, black mustard, and cabbage together form a triangle of multi-chromosome hybrids: it’s where we get Indian mustard, Ethiopian mustard, and canola.

Categories: Food & agriculture, Plants, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on March 23, 2021April 28, 2021

The shadow of the volcano

What do the bicycle, Marmite, Mormonism, and Frankenstein have in common? A volcano in Indonesia.

Categories: 19th century history, Arts & recreation, Earth science, Europe, Food & agriculture, History, Literature, North & Central America, Physics & chemistry, Places, Religion & belief, Sciences, Southeast Asia, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on February 21, 2021April 17, 2021

Biblical and Shakespeare gardens

Some gardens grow only the plants mentioned in either the Bible or the works of Shakespeare.

Categories: Arts & recreation, Food & agriculture, Literature, Plants, Religion & belief, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 21, 2020April 28, 2021

Sparrow smashing

In 1958 Mao Zedong declared war on sparrows. Although he won that battle, China lost the war.

Categories: 20th century history, Animals, East Asia, Food & agriculture, History, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on November 16, 2020April 28, 2021

Coffee crisis

Vietnam is the second-largest producer of coffee in the world because of a crisis in 1970s East Germany.

Categories: 20th century history, Economics & business, Europe, Food & agriculture, History, Places, Politics & law, Sciences, Southeast Asia
Basmati
By The Generalist Posted on September 27, 2020January 25, 2023

Thwarting the biopirates

India prevented people patenting their foods, traditional medicines, and yoga poses by recording them all in an online database: 34 million pages’ worth.

Categories: Animals, Economics & business, Food & agriculture, Health & medicine, Places, Plants, Politics & law, Sciences, South Asia, Technology

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