In one copy of a 1942 edition of German historian Gert Buchheit’s biography of Rainer Maria Rilke, someone has glued a typewritten and hectographed alphanumeric text. The text fills 33 pages with 18,760 characters in groups of four. Analysis shows that it’s less ordered than English or German but more ordered than random text. To date, no one has been able to make sense of it.
Here’s the cryptogram itself, and here’s an analysis.
I’d missed this: In 2006 a geneticist, a philosopher, and a chicken farmer all agreed that the egg came before the chicken.
Nottingham University geneticist John Brookfield pointed out that the first chicken (the first creature bearing chicken DNA) must have begun as an embryo in an egg. “The first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg, so I would conclude that the egg came first.”
David Papineau, philosopher of science at King’s College, London, agreed. “I would argue it is a chicken egg if it has a chicken in it. … If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg.”
And Charles Bournes, chair of trade body Great British Chicken, said, “Eggs were around long before the first chicken arrived. Of course they may not have been chicken eggs as we see them today, but they were eggs.”
According to the BBC, “Professor Brooke added the debate could finally be laid to rest.”
ladrone
n. a thief; robber; highwayman; rogue
depeculation
n. a robbing or embezzling
desponsate
adj. married
adhorn
v. to make a cuckold of
According to legend, French highwayman Claude Duval agreed not to rob one gentleman if his wife would dance the courante with him by the wayside.
He was hanged at Tyburn in 1670 “to the great grief of the women.” A memorial in Covent Garden reads, “Here lies DuVall: Reder, if male thou art, Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.”
A problem from the October 1961 issue of Eureka, the journal of the Cambridge University Mathematical Society:
When A was three times as old as B was the year before A was a half of B’s present age, B was 3 years younger than A was when B was two thirds of A’s present age. A’s and B’s ages now total 73. How old are A and B?
An “easy and curious method of foretelling rainy or fine weather,” from an 1860 book on conjuring, of all places:
“[T]he best instrument of all, is a good pair of scales, in one of which let there be a brass weight of a pound, and in the other a pound of salt, or of saltpetre, well dried; a stand being placed under the scale, so as to hinder it falling too low. When it is inclined to rain, the salt will swell, and sink the scale: when the weather is growing fair, the brass weight will regain its ascendancy.”
A puzzle in chess logic from The Batsford Chess Puzzle Book. Who made the last move, and what was it? (There’s no trick — everything is just as it seems.)
Have Angleworms attractive homes?
Do Bumblebees have brains?
Do Caterpillars carry combs?
Do Ducks dismantle drains?
Can Eels elude elastic earls?
Do Flatfish fish for flats?
Are Grigs agreeable to girls?
Do Hares have hunting hats?
Do Ices make an Ibex ill?
Do Jackdaws jug their jam?
Do Kites kiss all the kids they kill?
Do Llamas live on lamb?
Will Moles molest a mounted mink?
Do Newts deny the news?
Are Oysters boisterous when they drink?
Do Parrots prowl in pews?
Do Quakers get their quills from quails?
Do Rabbits rob on roads?
Are Snakes supposed to sneer at snails?
Do Tortoises tease toads?
Can Unicorns perform on horns?
Do Vipers value veal?
Do Weasels weep when fast asleep?
Can Xylophagans squeal?
Do Yaks in packs invite attacks?
Are Zebras full of zeal?
“P.S. Shake well and recite every morning in a shady place.”
The second star in the Big Dipper’s handle is actually two stars, Mizar and Alcor. Distinguishing the two with the naked eye has been used as a test of vision for hundreds of years. Arabic tradition held that only those with the sharpest eyesight could see Mizar’s companion, and the 13th-century Persian astronomy writer Zakariya al-Qazwini wrote that “people tested their eyesight by this star.” In Japan, it was said that being unable to see Alcor with the naked eye foretold an impending death of old age, and Alexander von Humboldt and François Arago both noted that Alcor can be seen only with difficulty.
In The Herschels and Modern Astronomy (1901), Irish astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke wrote, “The Arabs in the desert regarded it as a test of penetrating vision; … Vidit Alcor, at non lunam plenam (Latin for ‘he saw Alcor, but not the full moon’), came to be a proverbial description of one keenly alive to trifles, but dull of apprehension for broad facts.”
(Thanks, Sharon.)
How many people are in this group?
There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend to be noticeably silly. If you doubt it, then ask any pious fellow of your acquaintance to put what he believes into the form of an affidavit, and see how it reads. … ‘I, John Doe, being duly sworn, do say that I believe that, at death, I shall turn into a vertebrate without substance, having neither weight, extent or mass, but with all the intellectual powers and bodily sensations of an ordinary mammal; … and that, for the high crime and misdemeanor of having kissed my sister-in-law behind the door, with evil intent, I shall be boiled in molten sulphur for one billion calendar years.’ Or, ‘I, Mary Roe, having the fear of Hell before me, do solemnly affirm and declare that I believe it was right, just, lawful and decent for the Lord God Jehovah, seeing certain little children of Beth-el laugh at Elisha’s bald head, to send a she-bear from the wood, and to instruct, incite, induce and command it to tear forty-two of them to pieces.’ Or, ‘I, the Right Rev. ————-, Bishop of ————, D.D., LL.D., do honestly, faithfully and on my honor as a man and a priest, declare that I believe that Jonah swallowed the whale,’ or vice versa, as the case may be.
— H.L. Mencken, American Mercury, March 1930
