- Death of a (Really Good) Salesman - ”He was a powerful executive at some of the best-known companies in the world. Then he started robbing banks. The meteoric rise and dramatic fall of Steve Carroll, the high-flying corporate executive who wanted it all.”
- The Near-Magical Mystery of Quasiparticles - More weird stuff from the physicists: ”The zoo of spontaneously emerging particlelike entities known as quasiparticles has grown quickly and become more and more exotic. Here are a few of the most curious and potentially useful examples.”
- The Royal Spy Who Became the Feminist Answer to Shakespeare - A woman who had a varied career: ”Aphra Behn was the first English woman in history to work as a professional writer. The only thing more colorful than her boundary-pushing stories was her own secretive life.”
- Bones evolved to act like batteries, 400-million-year-old fish suggest - ”By studying the fossilized remains of ancient fish, scientists have uncovered a turning point in the development of one of the most important parts of humans and other animals: bone.” More info in the original paper, if you're curious: Bone metabolism and evolutionary origin of osteocytes: Novel application of FIB-SEM tomography
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Lost Album, Human Highway - The story of CSNY's failed attempts to record a successor to Déjà Vu: ”The musicians had managed to overcome multiple stumbling blocks during the recording sessions for Déjà Vu, and emerged on the other side with a cultural touchstone and enduring songs… That success now seemed like a rare moment of creative symbiosis they couldn’t repeat, even with material that was worth the effort.”
- Whaling History - Discover the stories behind the sea shanties: ”Whale oil provided fuel for lighting and lubrication for the gears of the industrial revolution, until it was replaced by petroleum products in the mid-nineteenth century… The documentation of that industry is extensive; the data presented here combines information from many sources including logbooks, journals, ship registers, newspapers, business papers, and custom house records.”
- The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar - ”A timezone-independent lunar calendar which accords with the lunar phases and avoids the problem of rescheduling events every year.” No more difficulty working out when Easter is
- The Lives of Others - ”Two women gave birth on the same day in a place called Come By Chance. They didn’t know each other, and never would. Half a century later, their children made a shocking discovery.” A strange tale from Newfoundland.
- The Last Time the Suez Canal Was Blocked a Utopian Communist Micronation Was Formed at Sea - The Ever Given was just a blip compared to what happened between 1967 and 1975: ”The last time ships got stuck in the Suez Canal, they were there for eight years and developed a separate society with its own Olympic Games.”
- Vintage Hollywood Stars Dressed-Up as Easter Bunnies – And Why They Did It - Here's Doris Day in her usual Easter attire
Happy invoicing!
