A list of curious facts
One: The world’s largest furniture fair—Milan Design Week—kicks off this Wednesday—with some cinematic flair. Get ready for the collab between legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and French design firm Roche Bobois. The result: a collection as colourful as his films. The flagship piece is the Lounge sofa set below:
The lead image is of the Bubble sofa that had a cameo in his latest flick ‘The Room Next Door’. (New York Times)
Two: In The White Lotus season 3 finale, the unexpected villain is a seed from the “suicide tree”—i.e the deadly pong pong tree. Fruit of the cerbera odollam is packed with cerberin—a toxin that freezes your heartbeat in an instant:
“It will basically override the polarization within the body that's required for the heart muscle to contract and relax,” says [biochemistry expert] Owen McDougal, “Without the impulse and relaxation phases, the heart muscle just stops working.”
There is no handy antidote, unless you happen to be right next door to a hospital that stores digoxin immune fab. As you can see below, the fruit itself looks safe and boring—just like a serial killer (cue evil laugh). (National Geographic, login required)
Three: Unlike its name, New College is one of the oldest in the University of Oxford— built like a fortress in 1379. The stodgy old building is getting a ‘refresh’ thanks to architect David Kohn—who has helped design a satellite campus with a very different look. The star of this show: “A chubby, rhubarb and custard-coloured tower bedecked with anteaters and mole.” The design is whimsical, yes, but also has a message:
Near the pangolin, at the top of this striped stone campanile, cling other carved fauna. There’s an octopus, a moth and a golden mole, joining a menagerie of creatures peering from the parapets below, all representing species at risk. “Carvings of animals on buildings used to represent colonial expansion and the novelty of discovery,” says Kohn. “Now, those same animals and territories are under huge pressure.”
Below is a peek at the pangolin:
And this one gives you a better sense of the overall style—which is distinctly ‘not ye olde Oxford’. (The Guardian)
Bonus fact: This is a bit of literary trivia. We all assume the idiom ‘blood is thicker than water’ means family is a more important bond than any other. But but but: the source of that phrase—the Bible—says exactly the opposite: "Blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb.” A ‘covenant’ being a binding agreement—be it with God or your spouse or, in this case, soldiers on a battlefield. In other words, ties of bloodshed are indeed stronger than ties of blood—which isn’t quite as nice. (VOA)
