Isaac Newton, undercover agent (Part 2)
Isaac Newton, giant of math and physics, undercover agent for the Royal Mint, faced off against William Chaloner, the notorious forger, tongue-padder, and dildo-merchant. [2 of 2]
Category: Society
Isaac Newton, undercover agent (Part 1)
Precious metals could be stolen from coins by clipping, plugging, or sweating them. It’s a good thing Isaac Newton was on the case. [1 of 2]
Pentagon hot dogs
The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world, but what lies at its centre? Until 2006, it was a hot dog stand.
Cow clicking
In 2010 a satirical video “game” called Cow Clicker accidentally became a viral sensation, despite being one of the most deliberately tedious games ever invented.
Cryptography gardening
If you want to decipher an encrypted message, it’s helpful to plant some plaintext seeds.
Dancing plagues
Sudden bouts of contagious dancing plagued pre-modern Europe – afflicting up to a thousand people at a time.
Iron currency
In the late 19th century CE Sierra Leone and surrounds, high quality iron needles tied into bundles served as currency.
The town of no appendices
Before you move into Villa Las Estrellas you must have your appendix removed.
Wine immolation
King Charles II of Navarre died when, wrapped in alcohol-soaked linen, he caught on fire.
Three games of men
The festival Naadam is like the Mongolian equivalent of the Olympics, with just three sports: wrestling, archery, and horse racing.
The sun after sunset
Where can you see sunlight after the sun has set? In the zodiac or sometimes directly opposite the sun in the night sky.
Peace on Earth
The biblical phrase “peace on Earth, and goodwill to all men” is probably a mistake, a mistranslation because of a single missing letter.
The pelican in her piety
Jesus Christ is associated with many images: the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd… and the Pelican?
Word frequency laws
In 1945 the linguist George Zipf observed two strange word frequency phenomena: the longer a word is, the less common it is; and the most common word is used twice as much as the second most common, three times more than the third.
Feed sack dresses
When US farmers bought seeds or flour during the Great Depression, the most important question was this: what patterns were printed on the sack?
Ghost station and ghost trains
Since 2006 no-one could enter the Newhaven Marine railway station in England. From then until 2019 one train passed through the station each day, and it was not allowed to carry any passengers.
The Generalist Academy 