Notes from the Brooklyn Polygnostic Institute

M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,481
#2,481
Fun fact

The attorney who successfully argued that that the homeless people in New York City had a right to shelter in 1979 let a homeless man stay at his apartment while he was researching the case and had even more homeless people over for Thanksgiving. Afterwards he discovered that his Archbishop Molloy class ring was missing.

May be verified in the article Hidden City that appears in the anthology Hogs Wild: Selected Reporting Pieces by Ian Frazier. Pg. 282
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,484
#2,484
Fun Fact

Da Vinci Code writer Dan Brown once recorded a soft rock album that included a song about phone sex called "976-Love." He said that he would have preferred to write songs about princes and queens reading ancient manuscripts but no one was interested. No one was interested in his song about phone sex either. He estimates that his album sold nine copies with all of them being bought by his mother.

May be verified in the November 3, 2017 issue of the Week Magazine

A portion of the song may be found here.

https://news.avclub.com/da-vinci-code-author-dan-brown-wrote-a-song-about-phone-1798238073
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,485
#2,485
Fun Fact

Until recently it was difficult to get a decent cup of coffee in Colombia because almost all of their coffee was exported and the locals drank coffee imported from as far away as Vietnam. Within the last 20 months the Tostao chain of upscale cafe that only sell local Colombian coffee gas opened 200 branches.


May be verified in the November 3, 2017 issue of the Week Magazine. The story originally appeared in the Washington Post.
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,486
#2,486
The Italian soccer federation ordered that a passage from Anne rank's Diary be read aloud before all games for a week in responswe to the supporters of one team defacing their stadium with stickers of Anne Frank wearing the jersey of the other team that shares the stadium. Anti-semitism among this team's supporters goes back a long time. In 1998 they unfurled a banner that said "Auschwitz Is Your Country; the Ovens Are Your Homes." to supporters of that team.

May be verified in the November 3, 2017 issue of the Week Magazine
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,487
#2,487
Fun Fact

The doctor who redeigned little leaguer helmet and moved the pitching mound back two feet because little leaguers were being hit by pitches too often once measured the pulse rates and blood pressure of little leaguers and their parents before, during and after the games and discovered that the parents felt more stress than the children.

May be verified in the article The physiologist who made Little League safer an obituary of Creighton Hale 18924-2017 that apperaed in the November 3, 2017 issue of the Week Magazine.
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,489
#2,489
Fun Fact

The fossil bones of the ancient whale Basilosaurus were used to make furniture and andirons in the American South.

May be verified in the book Last Laughs: Prehistoric Epitaphs by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen pg. 24
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,493
#2,493
President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft had ties to the eugenics movement.


May be verified in

‘Imbeciles’ and ‘Illiberal Reformers’ By DAVID OSHINSKY A review of the books IMBECILES The Supreme Court, American Eugenics and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
By Adam Cohen and ILLIBERAL REFORMERS Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era By Thomas C. Leonard

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books/review/imbeciles-and-illiberal-reformers.html
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,494
#2,494
Theodore Roosevelt was a supporter of forced sterilization of the mentally ill and of people with developmental disabilities.

May be verified in

‘Imbeciles’ and ‘Illiberal Reformers’ By DAVID OSHINSKY A review of the books IMBECILES The Supreme Court, American Eugenics and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
By Adam Cohen and ILLIBERAL REFORMERS Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era By Thomas C. Leonard

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books/review/imbeciles-and-illiberal-reformers.html
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,495
#2,495
There is no formal portrait of the Supreme Court for the 1924 term because one of the members refused to sit next to Louis Brandeis, the court’s first Jewish member. Several years later, two of the justices would lobby against the nomination of Benjamin Cardozo so as not “to afflict the court with another Jew.”

May be verified in

‘Imbeciles’ and ‘Illiberal Reformers’ By DAVID OSHINSKY A review of the books IMBECILES The Supreme Court, American Eugenics and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
By Adam Cohen and ILLIBERAL REFORMERS Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era By Thomas C. Leonard

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books/review/imbeciles-and-illiberal-reformers.html
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,496
#2,496
Fun Fact

According to Charles C. Mann in his book 1491 the clouds of trillions of passenger pigeons that sometimes appeared in the 19th century were not present nefore the European colonization of North America.He believes that they were a symptom of a ecosystem perturbed by the arrival of smallpox, bluegrass and honeybees.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 17
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,497
#2,497
The glaciers killed off all of the earthworms when they advanced. Earthworms had still not recolonized New England by the time that the European colonizers had arrived.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 17
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,498
#2,498
Staten Island, long Island, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard are all berms pushed up by the most recent glaciation.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 19
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,499
#2,499
The pronghorn (American antelope) can run at 55 MPH and sustain that speed over long distances. Its fastest predators, wolves and coyotes can only reach a maximum speed of 35 mph in a sprint. This suggests that extinct predators such as dire wolves, short-faced bears and sabre-toothed cats were much faster than modern predators.

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 19
 
M

mikelibrarian

Lost in the stacks.
#2,500
#2,500
A billion years ago New York was most likely connected to Angola and South America

May be verified in What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe Pg. 20
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top