Natural units (Part 1)
Most units of measurement are based on specific physical qualities or tangible reference objects. But they don’t have to be. [1 of 2]
Recent Posts
Little Women and the mummy’s curse
At the same time she was writing the novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott also wrote one of the first stories to feature an Egyptian mummy’s curse.
The curse of Colonel Sanders
The ghost of KFC’s Colonel Sanders has haunted a Japanese baseball team since 1985.
The Dissent Channel
Since 1971, US diplomats and State Department workers who disagree with government policy can communicate their opposition through the Dissent Channel.
A quadrillion fish
The bristlemouth, a small ugly genus of fish found in the ocean twilight zone, is probably the most common vertebrate on the planet – estimates go as high as the quadrillions.
Space nurse
One nurse, Dee O’Hara, took vitals and monitored astronauts on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions.
Disney parodies
Disney animation has been parodied for more than half a century, including the classics Bambi Meets Godzilla, Mickey Mouse in Vietnam, and an Italian satire of Fantasia in which alien life evolves from a soda bottle.
Prehistoric tracks
The Sweet Track in Somerset, Britain, was built exactly 5,828 years ago.
Mozart’s missing movement
Mozart’s famous piece Ein kleine Nachtmusik has four movements – but in his personal catalogue, Mozart recorded five.
January weather
According to Las Cabañuelas lore, you can predict the weather for the whole year based on the weather of each day in January.
Portugal vs. Egypt in India
How about that time that the Egyptian Mamluks, with secret support from Venice, battled the Portuguese in the sea off the coast of India?
Time zone tripoints
At several points around the world, three time zones meet.
Monorail elephant
In 1950 Tuffi the elephant fell 12 metres out of a suspended monorail into a river. She survived.
Eight years on the Suez Canal
In 1967, fifteen ships and their crews were trapped on the Suez Canal because of the Six-Day War. The ships would remain there for the next eight years.
Uncombable hair
People suffering from Uncombable Hair Syndrome have silvery hair that resists all attempts to comb, brush, or otherwise groom it.
The sentinels and the missionary
In 2018 an American missionary travelled to North Sentinel Island in an attempt to bring Christianity to one of the last uncontacted peoples in the world. He did not return.
The Generalist Academy 