smart & curious
A list of curious facts
BBC News’ 10 amazing facts about gharials includes this: “When male gharials reach sexual maturity, they develop a bulbous, fleshy growth on the tip of their snout. It is from this ‘ghara’, the Hindi word for a type of round pot, that gharials came to have their name.”
A giant sand cloud is travelling all the way from the Sahara desert—right across the Atlantic—to the United States. And this happens every year!
“This phenomenon is the result of tiny sand and mineral particles being swept up off the surface of the Sahara Desert by winds. These particles are then carried by updrafts into an extremely dry and hot air mass known as the Saharan Air Layer, which forms above the desert between late spring and early fall.”
A cricket ball maker says the ban on using saliva to help that ball swing isn’t a biggie. A little cotton towel works just as well.
Elon Musk’s tweets are now a colouring book thanks to an artist who has turned his drivel into art. Yes, she is a fangirl.
This stunning 15th century Quran is written in gold on Ming Dynasty-era Chinese paper—and is on the auction block for $1.2 million. This brilliant thread is brimming with fascinating facts about this treasure. But to truly appreciate its beauty, watch this Christie’s video.
A list of good reads
- The Atlantic dissects the modus operandi of the peddler of misinformation. Their favourite line: ‘The mainstream media won’t tell you this…’ (h/t Samarth Bansal)
- Piyasree Dasgupta in Huffington Post opens with a lovely ode to childhood khana—and how the lockdown changed her relationship with food. But then she expands the story in unexpected directions.
- The Guardian explains why Vogue—more specifically, Anna Wintour—has a race problem.
- Also in The Guardian: an excellent takedown of Netflix’s ‘watch next’ bullying.