Have plague-infected rats (as well as their attendant fleas) gotten a bad rap in the history books? A pair of Georgia-based geographers think so. Their rather unconventional theory is that an unknown viral condition, rather than bubonic plauge, was responsible for Europe’s Black Death: “The Black Death went so fast, but we knew bubonic plague […]
Tags:Black Death·bubonic plague·Hong Kong·medicine·Medieval history
To paraphrase a great eight-fingered, three-haired philosopher, there are few things in life that can’t be improved by the addition of a monkey. Such is the case with greyhound racing, an on-the-ropes pastime that briefly experimented with monkey jockeys during the Depression. According to a recent Australian reminiscence, things went awry due to the pint-sized […]
Tags:Australia·greyhound racing·Humane Society·monkeys·primates·sports
Over the weekend, Microkhan had the enormous pleasure of re-watching Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, about a daft German’s attempt to build an opera house in early 20th-century Iquitos. Without giving too much away, the quest brings him in contact with an Amazonian tribe that prepares chicha the old-fashioned way: By balling up the maize in their […]
Tags:alcohol·Budweiser Chelada·chicha·Fitzcarraldo·Iquitos·Werner Herzog
A century ago, the Dillingham Commission was charged with investigating the societal impact of immigration, particularly from Eastern and Southern Europe. The Congressional panel duly churned out a 41-volume report that, for all its regal language and intricate graphs, contains some of the vilest pseudoscientific drivel ever committed to print. Of particular interest to Microkhan […]
Tags:Dillingham Commission·Franz Boas·immigration·pseudoscience
One of the things I’ve learned while writing the Now the Hell Will Start screenplay is that it’s tough to make coincidences believable. They’re often necessary for the plot to move forward, alas, so you have to finesse them. You certainly don’t want audience members turning to each other to say, “Um, that wouldn’t happen […]
Tags:American Ninja·Bad Movie Friday·Judie Aronson·Michael Dudikoff·movies·Now the Hell Will Start·Steve James
In terms of risk-to-reward ratio, there are few sports that can compete with unlimited hydroplaning. While the sport is far less deadly than in bygone days, it’s still not for the faint-of-heart. And unlike such daredevil fare as stock-car racing, there is relatively limited glory to be had (at least outside of the Pacific Northwest). […]
There’s such a wealth of fascinating tidbits in this National Nuclear Security Administration archive, it’s hard to know where to begin. Many of the goodies, such as this mind-blowing clip from Operation Castle, will already be familiar to students of atomic-testing history. But others are of a much rarer nature, and some were declassified just […]
Tags:Alaska·Amchitka·atomic testing·movies·Operation Castle·sea otters·weapons
I’m off to screenplay for the rest of the afternoon, so I’ll leave y’all with a classic from the Wu-Tang Golden Era. The video is just average shakes up until the part where Ghostface dons the bathrobe. From that point forward, it’s all gravy. (Question: Why are bathrobes generally verboten outside the home? Who will […]
Tags:Ghostface·hip-hop·music·Pete Rock·Raekwon the Chef·Wu-Tang
Whenever I’m in an elevator, I take note of whether or not the button numbers are printed in Braille. Not entirely sure why, but I’ve always thought Braille was a brilliant invention—simple, intuitive, and oh-so-useful. And it’s got such a cool backstory, with its roots in 19th-century French spycraft. But according to a recent report […]
Those of you who read Microkhan’s debut post know that management reserves the right to veer away from estoerica on occasion, and delve into topics of a far more personal nature. Well, this is one of those times. Read on if you’d like a brief peek inside Microkhan’s troubled heart; otherwise, fear not, the polymathism […]
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this chart is realizing that the United States remains a Puritanical outlier. The only other non-Muslim nations that adhere to the 21-across-the-board rule are Fiji, Palau, and Micronesia. Yet if any American politician dare utter a peep about lowering the drinking age, they’re shouted down as if they’d come […]
Tags:alcohol·Fiji·Micronesia·Palau·politics
Humans and elephants have been intermingling since time immemorial, so it’s a little surprising to discover that we’re still not entirely sure how our pachyderm friends deal with their dead. Oh, we’re pretty sure the mourn, and they appear to cover their pals with leaves and sticks, too. But those elephant burial grounds mentioned in […]
An epic-fail investment bank owns the rights to “enough uranium cake to make a nuclear bomb.”. Should you be worried? Microkhan breaks down the yellowcake game here. Interesting to note that raw uranium prices have nearly quadrupled over the past six years. We really should read this to find out why. It’s going on the […]
Tags:arms trade·uranium·yellowcake
The whole senatorial brouhaha in Minnesota has nothing on the ongoing mayoral battle in Terre Haute, Indiana. The loser in the city’s 2007 election is still contesting his defeat, on some seriously esoteric grounds: Burke v. Bennett pits former Mayor Kevin Burke against current Mayor Duke Bennett, who won the 2007 election by 110 votes […]
Yesterday’s post about Political Power Units (PPUs) and the Polynesian island of Niue attracted a few dissenting e-mails. These correspondents argued that Microkhan got it wrong by a country mile, and that Niueans are political weaklings when compared to their South Pacific neighbors: Niue, powerful? Don’t make me laugh, O Mighty Microkhan. By contrast, I […]
The Jones Girls were by no means a great group. They too often veered into easy-listening terrain, and committed a cardinal music-biz sin by partnering with Lou Rawls (so famously slammed by The Pharcyde many moons ago). But the Girls also produced a song responsible for one of the greatest hip-hop samples of all time: […]
Tags:hip-hop·music·Royal Flush·Smif-n-Wessun·The Jones Girls·The Pharcyde
The latest furor over sales of lion meat spurred Microkhan to look up the delicacy’s pricing history. According to this 2003 article, a pound of lion meat then went for roughly $35, or $2.19 per ounce. Five years later, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times had a 14-ounce lion chop at a steakhouse, a […]
Microkhan’s been reading everything under the Sun regarding the forthcoming Indian election, a true marvel of democracy. Yesterday’s fodder was this New York Times bit on the growing political enthusiasm of India’s urban elite. Buried amidst the reporting was a rather gobsmacking fact: only 543 members of the nation’s parliament are directly elected by the […]
Ladies and gentleman, please meet the second-best female mutton buster in all of Montgomery County, Texas. Don’t let the pink helmet fool you—young KaLee is as tough as they come. If that clown hadn’t snatched her away at the end, I reckon she’d still be riding. A much less successful ride from the San Antonio […]
Now a somewhat secretive Eritrean military base, Kagnew Station was one of America’s key listening posts for much of the Cold War. Radios located here are able to pick up clear signals from thousands of miles away; local AM stations in Asmara have reported hearing Finnish broadcasters on occasion. Altitude plays a big role in […]
The nation-at-large first awoke to the notion of Appalachian feuding thanks to this 1885 New York Times article (PDF). Entitled “The Kentucky Vendetta,” the piece recounted a Rowan County spat that arose over a charge of horse thievery. The writer contended that when the courts were unable to provide appropriate redress, the Underwood and Holbrook […]
In celebration of the forthcoming Easter holiday, Microkhan would like to offer a very special dud for Bad Movie Friday: the infamous Leonard Part 6. The Bill Cosby spy spoof is allegedly a comedy, but is known to evoke fewer laughs than the typical root canal. As the Washington Post‘s Rita Kempley so succintly put […]
Tags:Bad Movie Friday·Bill Cosby·Leonard Part 6·movies·Smurfs
The ultimate fate of the National Defense Reserve Fleet has become a hotly contested matter in recent years, as environmentalists claim the aged ships are leaking nasty toxins into California’s Suisun Bay. That certainly seems logical, since these rusting hulks were built in the age of asbestos, lead paint, and other environmental bogeymen. But a […]
In terms of sheer magnitude and complexity, nothing on Earth can beat India’s electoral system. Indian election officials must ensure fair play in a nation of 1.15 billion souls, where a multitude of languages are spoken and infrastructure can be less-than-ideal. On top of that, India’s sheer passion for electoral politics means that minor parties […]
With Chechnya back atop the news, Microkhan wanted to take a moment to delve into the country’s rich-yet-brutal history. Much of what we know comes from the excellent 1998 book Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus. It’s dated, of course, since it stops well short of Russia’s comeback and the installation of a murderous, Kremlin-friendly regime. […]
Juris Shibayama is a modern-day Renaissance man, whose talents range from orthopaedic surgery to bodybuilding to the inhalation of hamburgers. The last of these skills has earned him rising-star status on the competitive eating circuit, where he’s currently ranked twelfth in the world (just below the great Patrick “Bib Sheet” Vandam). Shibayama, who immodestly (yet […]
Longtime readers know that Microkhan has a curious obsession with suicide. (We blame Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads.) So we couldn’t help but notice the fact that Montana has by far the highest suicide rate in the U.S., at 22 cases per 100,000 residents. That leaves even Nevada and its legions of busted, coked-out gamblers […]
Even expert jewelers can mistake a well-crafted slab of paste for the genuine article. Or at least that’s the theory behind DiamondNite, a hand-held gadget that beeps when it’s placed against a diamond, yet remains silent when brought in contact with cubic zirconia or moissanite. DiamondNite’s manufacturer won’t reveal how the device works, but Microkhan […]
Microkhan is off to the Elm City today, so this’ll be the last post for the next, oh, 19 hours or so. Thought I’d keep on this week’s Soviet-invasion theme, by offering up the climactic scene to Chuck Norris’s Invasion USA. I don’t think a spoiler warning is necessary, since no moviegoer with a half […]
