October 1
Quick Hits
It’s been a bit, so let’s do a free post. Tell your friends.
Questions
Signs of détente between Iran and Egypt were first noted by outsiders in 2023, with discussions of possibly opening the Suez Canal to Iranian vessels being one recent subject of discussion between the two nations. As a goodwill gesture towards that possibility, this July Iranian officials renamed a street in Tehran after the recently deceased Hassan Nasrallah. Previously, the street had been named for someone that the Iranian regime had described as a “martyr of resistance” because of the actions that he took over four decades earlier, largely out of criticism of Egypt’s détente with another country at that time. Which person had been the namesake of that street prior to Nasrallah?
I have said below, by other means, the birth name of what boxer? Aptly, he was a heavyweight, and given to whipping his opponents, as his 49 career wins would suggest. Fighting during an era when a notable champion was bringing his own career to a close, this man won the heavyweight title on his fifth attempt. When he did so, he became the oldest person ever to win the title up that point - a feat that would not be bested until George Foreman won his title at age 46 in 1995.
As suggested by its name, reggaeton, while associated with musicians from Puerto Rico in particular, has its roots in Jamaican music. Specifically, a certain beat (or “riddim”) was used in a 1990 dancehall song (a clip is attached), and from there that riddim spread to become the basis for songs for musicians such as Luis Fonsi and Bad Bunny. In fact, that riddim is usually named in reference to the attached song. The truth of the origin of the beat is actually a bit more complicated - a 1989 collaboration called “Poco Man Jam,” by Gregory Peck with Steely and Clevie, used it first - but regardless, what is the name of this influential song? The song is a critique of colonialism, with its title phrase being Jamaican patois for an act of submission.
Abraham Wald was a Hungarian-born mathematician. His accomplishments including developing the field of sequential analysis, where data collection is stopped at a certain point once a certain predetermined criterion is met. This approach is thought to minimize Type 1 errors, and it was particularly useful for his sponsor - an American government that was attempting to develop quality control standards as fast as possible during the Second World War. However, Wald is probably better known to you because of a meme, thanks to his work analyzing the Lockheed B-34 Lexington in particular. That so memorialized work is likely the most famous example of what two-word concept applicable to fields ranging from logic and statistics to economics and social psychology?
She was married to one man, before she divorced him at the behest of another man, whom she then married. The first man would go on to hold the position held by the second man - though only for three months. She would not live to see that turn of events, as she died tragically, though the accounts of Suetonius, Cassius Dio, and Tacitus are not consistent about how violent her death was. Her most famous fictional depiction concludes well before all that unpleasantness. Who?
At the Church of Notre Dame in Rodez, France, you can find the below, um, depiction of a man exposing his anus to you, the viewer. While one of the cheekier (sorry) examples of such woodcraft, such an unconventional approach to art was not unheard of in medieval churches. The particular woodwork shown is part of an object that is also known as a “mercy seat.” What is the traditional term by which such mercy seats are called? Usually, the seat is left down, but it can be folded up, with designs like that below acting as a kind of resting spot for those leaning up against the seat (usually during times of prolonged prayer). Since the chair was usually left down, that meant that unusual designs like that shown below would remain hidden - which is how artists were afforded the opportunity to create depictions otherwise not seen in churches. Add two letters to the answer sought, and you get a word which appears as the English language title of a waggish 2024 black comedy directed by Alain Guiraudie.
Last time I mentioned a candidate for the oldest cryptogram, and that got me thinking about what could be the oldest undeciphered language. Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer. One complicating factor is that some pictorial depictions may be just that - or they could be a script meant to convey consistent meaning that was coupled with specific units of sound. The earliest potential candidate for such a script is found on a group of artifacts, including bones and tortoise shells (see below - as you can see, not much to work with there), found at a site located near the Yellow River in Henan, China. This site probably was first settled around 7000 BC before being abandoned around 5700 BC. What is the name of this site? It is the location of the most robust example of artifacts belonging to what is called the Peiligang culture, and among its other findings are a collection of flutes which are thought to be among the oldest musical instruments thus far found by archaeologists.
It takes its name from Sanskrit words meaning “corner” and “sun,” as it was dedicated to the Hindu sun deity Surya. It is thought that it embodied a horse-driven chariot representing the sun’s path across the sky in its origin, full design, as multiple wheel motifs (as seen in the second photo) would indicate. Though significant portions of it were damaged during the Muslim invasions beginning in the 15th century, it remains an important pilgrimage site today. What is the name of this World Heritage site near Puri in Odisha, India?
It was put together without the occupying Nazis knowing about it, which meant that its inventor had to make do with what he had on hand. This included a water pump taken from a Ford Model T, orange juice cans, and membranes for filtration made out of sausage casings. The nurse shown below served as a model to demonstrate the finished product. Which physician developed the “rotating drum kidney” - the first successful dialysis machine - in 1943?
The sleek (RED) Desk (shown first), a one-off model of a Leica camera (shown second), and a special edition Sondek LP12-50 turntable (shown third) are some of the examples of designs resulting from the collaboration of Marc Newson and which other noted industrial designer?
Answers
Khalid al-Islambuli, the military officer who was the architect of the October 1981 attack on Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, which resulted in the death of Sadat and several others. Islambuli was especially critical of Sadat’s role in the Camp David Accords, where Egypt normalized its relationship with Israel.
Arnold Cream was the unassuming birth name of heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott, who held three of the recognized world heavyweight boxing titles from 1951 to 1952. His career peaked as Joe Louis’s was ending, and he lost two attempts at the title versus Louis, as well as one against Ezzard Charles, before eventually claiming the title from Charles. Walcott’s short-lived reign as champion ended following two losses to another heavyweight great, Rocky Marciano.
“Dem Bow,” as in “they bow.” The song is performed by Shabba Ranks. Music clip credit VP Records.
“Survivorship bias” is the fallacy where one only analyzes those samples that “survived” a particular selection criterion, meaning that you are likely excluding many samples that did not survive from your analysis - thus making your conclusions dubious, since those failures are likely important also. In Wald’s case, he famously analyzed the planes that made it back from battle during the Second War. The (probably speculative) graphic of such a plane is shown below. Others had used information like that shown below to conclude that the B-34 (and other planes) needed additional reinforcements to the wings, both front and back, as that seemed to be where bullets were striking these planes. But Wald pointed out that only the planes that returned had damage to the wings - meaning that the planes that did not make it back must have suffered damage to other locations, like where the engines were, so that any reinforcement to planes actually should be placed in those locations instead.
Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Otho, then Nero. The most salacious story about her demise was that she, while pregnant with her third child, was kicked in the abdomen by a furious Nero, which led to her death from acute hemorrhage. Otho was one of the emperors who succeeded Nero during the Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69 - nice). Poppaea is the title character of the last opera of Claudio Monteverdi, 1642’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea), with that work concluding (unsurprisingly) with her rise to power. That opera is considered especially influential in part because of how it depicted almost every character in its story as being significantly flawed.
The mercy seat is also known as a misericord. The film is a French work called Misericordia, and that word comes from a Latin word that can mean “mercy” or “compassion.” Since you did not ask, here’s an image from a misericord from the Oude Kerk (St. Nicholas) in Amsterdam. Your guess as to what that lady is doing is as good as mine.
Jiahu
the Konark Sun Temple
Dutch physician Willem Kolff
If the austere colors, slim feel, and overall aerodynamic feel of these designs remind you of Apple products, there is a good reason - these are collaborations by former Apple designer Jony Ive with Newson. The general aesthetic of Apple products, going back to the 1990s, was developed by Ive. Some of the work above predates Ive’s departure from Apple, but since 2019 Ive and Newson have worked together crafting designs as part of their firm, named LoveFrom.
