May 4th, 2017

Holborn is a station on the London Underground. Opened in 1906, it is in the centre of the city, near the British Museum. Holborn also has an interesting connection to particle physics. In 1930 Wolfgang Pauli postulated the existence of a massless (almost), chargeless, weakly-interacting particle called a 'neutrino'. This set off a flurry of attempts to discover the particle. Yet the neutrino interacted so rarely that most detectors were overwhelmed with interference from the barrage of strongly-interacting particles. So in 1943 British physicist Maurice Nahmias was granted permission to set up a particle detector in Holborn station, about 100 ft underground. It was his hope that deep underground he would be shielded from unwanted particles. Although he failed to detect any neutrinos, he did demonstrate that indeed neutrino detectors work better underground, and other scientists began following his example. Holborn has continued to be used over the years for scientific experiments that require a deep location. As for the elusive neutrino, one was finally detected in 1956, also underground. The discovery was rewarded in 1995 with a Nobel Prize.

Bonus:

Perhaps Nahmias would have had better luck had he chosen a deeper station. Amersham Station is the best he could have done, at 249 ft underground.

-E

May 3rd, 2017

Many cultures have interesting rules about how money should be presented as a gift. In the Jewish faith, money given at a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah should come as multiples of 18. In India gift money is presented in ornate envelope called a शगुन लिफाफा (shagun lifafa, meaning 'presage envelope'). Amounts should have 1 as their last non-zero digit (51, 61, 210, 1910, etc.). The Chinese give gifts of money in iconic red envelopes called 紅包 (hongbao, literally 'red envelope'). They also have perhaps the most complicated rules for the amount. Even numbers are preferred for happy occasions, but the digit 4 should never appear in the amount, and 9 is allowed. Odd numbers are the norm at sad occasions like a funeral. All this to say, be careful to learn about the culture first before deciding the amount!

-E

May 2nd, 2017

Along with the Christian Cross and the Jewish Star of David, the Star and Crescent is the iconic symbol of Islam. It adorns the face of 12 national flags (sometimes slightly modified), all of which belong to predominantly Muslim countries. Of the three religious symbols, the Cross and Star of David have been used since antiquity, while the Star and Crescent was only recently associated with Islam. The Star and Crescent dates back millenniums, possibly even to Ancient Egypt. Over the centuries it has been reappropriated numerous times, eventually forming the flag of the Ottoman Empire in 1793. After the devolution of the Ottoman Empire, many of the successor states kept the iconography, most notably Turkey, whose flag is nearly identical. As many of these new nations practiced Islam, the association began to solidify. Libya bolstered this by pointing out that the moon could represent the Islamic lunar calendar, and that the moon and star pair is reminiscent of the Hegira (Mohammed's journey from Mecca to Medina). By the late 20th century the symbol and the faith had become synonymous, much to the chagrin of many Islamic scholars. If you choose to side with said scholars, the next best choice for a distinctly Islamic symbol is probably the stylized name of Allah: اَللّهٌ, as can be found on the flags of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

-E

May 1st, 2017

The hugely popular travel guide series 'Lonely Planet' was started in 1972 by two Australians after they backpacked from Europe to Australia. They arrived with virtually no money left, and began working on a rough guide called 'Across Asia on the Cheap'. Lonely Planet would go on to revolutionise travel, giving individuals the confidence to finally step out of their home countries. The books were named after an often misheard lyric in the Joe Cocker song 'Space Cowboy' (the actual lyric is 'lovely planet'). A misheard phrase that leads to an alternate interpretation is called a mondegreen, and they have been an aspect of popular music - sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident - as far back as popular music has existed. In fact, the word mondegreen itself is the result of a mondegreen: writer Syliva Wright coined the term after mishearing the lyrics 'and laid him on the green' as 'and Lady Mondegreen'.

-E

April 30th, 2017

Although they initially denied it, the band Rammstein took their name from the 1988 Ramstein Air Show Disaster, in which 70 people were killed. Apparently the extra 'm' was a mishap.

-E

April 29th, 2017

German has three tenses: Female, Male, and Neuter. It would make sense that the word for girl, mädchen, would be female, but in fact it is neuter. The word derives from an archaic word for girl, magd, which was indeed female. To this the diminutive 'chen' was added - a suffix that makes a word cute, similar to the suffix 'y' in English or 'ette' in French. However, in German, making a word diminutive changes it to neuter. The original word 'magd' was eventually forgotten, and the neuter alternative mädchen is now standard.

-E

April 28th, 2017

A landlocked country bordered only by other landlocked countries is called doubly landlocked. Only two countries are doubly landlocked. The first is Liechtenstein, which borders Switzerland and Austria, both of which are also landlocked. The other such country is Uzbekistan, which borders five other landlocked countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Though to the west Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also border the massive Caspian Sea, so are they really landlocked? Deciding whether the Caspian is a 'true sea', or the world's largest lake, is where the ambiguity lies. A sea is sometimes defined as a body of salt water, in which case the Caspian does fit the bill. Yet a lake is disconnected from the world's oceans, which the Caspian is also...sort of. In 1952 the Volga-Don Canal was opened, which for the first time ever meant it was possible for a boat to reach the ocean from the Caspian through a complex route. Explicitly, as of 1952 a boat could go: Caspian, Volga River, Volga-Don Canal, Don River, Sea of Azov, Kerch Strait, Black Sea, Bosphorus Strait, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles Strait, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Strait of Gibraltar, and finally the Atlantic Ocean. So if you want to ask whether or not Uzbekistan is truly doubly landlocked, you are better off asking if digging a canal to a lake turns it into a sea.

Bonus:
कबड्डी (Kabaddi) is a sport popular in South Asia in which a team send a player to try and touch as many of the other team's players as possible and return back to his side of the court on a single breath.

-E