Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: Can You Set Your Alarm to “Window Tap”?

November 8, 2015

If you think hitting the snooze button is risky now, you would have been in some trouble during Industrial Revolution-era Britain and Ireland. Back then, alarm clocks were pricey and erratic, leaving workers with no way to guarantee making it to work on time. Enter the knocker-upper. While it may not be the most creatively named title, the job of the knocker-upper was to knock on your windows at a predetermined time until you woke up. The hired hands were mostly freelancers looking to earn some extra cash and they used long sticks of lightweight wood to reach upper floors. Once the 1920s hit, alarm clocks became more reliable and affordable and the job of a knocker-upper faded into obscurity. You could probably set your phone’s alarm to sound like a window bang though, if you could use some nostalgia with your morning.

Cube LED Alarm Clock | $32

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: Is it Easy Seeing Green?

November 3, 2015

For all humans reading this, the answer is yes! Human eyes can perceive more shades of green than any other color. But why green? Shouldn’t we be able to see all colors equally? On a purely scientific level, our vision gives green more weight because two out of the three types of cones in our retinas—medium and long cones—are most sensitive to the part of the spectrum of light that we perceive as green. Short cones favor the blue end of the spectrum, but the other two overlap in the middle, which is the sweet spot for all things green. But basic biology aside, is there a reason that our eyes evolved this way? There’s more interpretive debate here, but most scientists agree that it’s because we evolved in predominantly green environments like forests and jungles where, Darwin would argue, our ancestors who could perceive more shades of green were better equipped to distinguish the tastiest food sources. So, with this high-def color vision, human eyes are pretty sophisticated, huh? Enter the mighty mantis shrimp, which has twelve types of photoreceptors (versus humans’ three), which allow them to perceive a wider slice of the EM spectrum. Also, unlike mere humans, the peacock mantis shrimp can punch with the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet. That’s 50 times faster than the blink of a human eye. It’s enough to make people green with envy…

Motherhood Tree of Life Custom Necklace | $125 – 155

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: How Did the Youth of 1560 Do Social Media?

November 1, 2015

Facebook may have brought comment threads and status updates to our computers and phones, but kiddos have been finding ways to memorialize inside jokes and favorite stories since the 16th century. As the young nobility of what is now the Netherlands would travel through Europe to visit scholars, they would have the philosophers and fellow students they met write down a quick entry in their alba amicorum—meaning “friend books” in Latin. The result was a cross between a yearbook and a LinkedIn recommendation. Noted artists of the day would even provide illustrations for a small fee. While the ladies of the time were not allowed to make such travels, they set up their own friend books; only theirs were much less formal. In a sweet testament to female friendships, their books contained secrets, in-jokes, gossip, and romantic prospects. These books were then passed around from friend to friend, resulting in a veritable message board of memories. These albums served as a collage-inspired way to show off how popular you were and how many social connections you were able to gain over time—an obsession we’re sure anyone with a Facebook account could relate to.

Laptop Cat Scratching Pad | $35

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: How Old Are Drones?

October 27, 2015

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or “drones”) as we know them have only been around for about 15 years, but like so many things in modern culture, they may have ancient ancestors. Best known for their controversial military uses, drones also have many peaceful, civilian applications, from sweeping aerial shots for films to dropping off your packaged instant gratification. But the oldest aerial drone or robot might just be the steam-powered pigeon of Archytas. In the 5^th century BCE, the Greek polymath Archytas invented a self-propelled, pigeon-shaped flying machine. Assuming his design worked, it may have flown several hundred meters, powered by a jet of steam or compressed air from an internal bladder. Archytas may have been most interested in testing theories of aerodynamics, rather than spying on the Spartans, and his wooden robot bird is a far cry from the hovering, high-tech drones of today, but I’m droning on…and this history is for the birds anyway.

Formation | $225

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: What’s inside the Brooklyn Bridge?

October 25, 2015

Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first bridge to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn. Beneath its anchorages, engineers built hidden vaults up to 50 feet tall. Over time, these were used for a variety of purposes. Thanks to their cool temperatures, the granite-walled storage spaces made the perfect wine cellars and they were rented out to the public until World War I. The Brooklyn side vaults ran for $500 per month in rent, while the cushier Manhattan side went for $5,000 per month to the Luyties Brothers liquor distributor. During the Cold War, another compartment was turned into a survival shelter and was stocked with food, water, and medical supplies. People kind of forgot about the makeshift shelter and the rations were finally rediscovered during a routine structural inspection in 2006. Today, the vaults are used to store maintenance equipment—a slightly less romantic, if not practical, purpose.

Starry Night Brooklyn Bridge | $95 – $185

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: Why Do We “Throw” Pots?

October 16, 2015

The first time you hear that a potter is “throwing a pot,” you might get a quizzical look and picture pottery flying across the room, reduced to smithereens in the destructive chaos of a good Polterabend. But of course to throw a pot is to create it, not destroy it; the term refers to the process in which a lump of clay takes shape on a potter’s wheel, becoming a beautiful vessel through centrifugal force and the action of the potter’s hands and tools. So why call that “throwing?” Turns out, the term hails from the Old English word thrawan, meaning to twist or turn, a specific and appropriate meaning that’s become obscure in the shift to Modern English. And there’s another twist to this etymological tale: the words “throw” and “throe” are both spin-offs of thrawan, so the twisting tension you might feel when in the throes of some stressful situation shares a word family with an essential pottery process—a feeling all too familiar to novice potters trying to get things to turn out right.

Stoneware Apple Baker | $25

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge How Do You Completely Fail at Marketing?

October 12, 2015

You take a page out of William George Crush’s book, that’s how. William was the passenger agent for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad—also known as the Katy—back in 1896. He was tasked with making sure the Katy had enough passenger business to warrant its ongoing operation and he knew he’d need to do something big to put the railroad’s name on the map. Throwing logic to the wind, he decided that in order to convince people that the Katy was a reliable and safe, he would stage a train crash. What was the thought process, if any, here? William noticed that train crashes tended to draw crowds and rather than dismissing it as morbid curiosity, he saw it as marketing genius. For whatever reason, no one stopped him and William went full steam ahead, offering tickets and transportation to anyone interested in a contrived accident. Turns out, William was right about one thing—people do like crashes. About 40,000 people turned out for the spectacle and watched as two locomotives lunged at each other, meeting in the center of a four-mile track. The result was an inevitable crash and burn—the trains’ boilers exploded and the ensuing chaos caused massive injuries and the loss of a photographer’s eye. William was fired the next day…and then rehired because shockingly, there was no bad press from the incident. Be that as it may, this marketing tactic is thankfully one that never quite caught on.

Choo Choo Train Dining Set | $20

Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge: What Month is Oktoberfest?

October 1, 2015

Around the world, Oktoberfest is synonymous with beer, brass bands, free-flowing beer, jolly men in lederhosen, hearty German fare, and…strong, stick-to-your-ribs, autumnal beer. Over 200 years old, the Munich Oktoberfest has grown into a huge harvest celebration of Bavarian culture, starting the third week in September and…What the fest?! Have the Bavarians lost their murmeln? Isn’t Oktoberfest in October?

While it does wrap up on the first Sunday in October, the majority of Oktoberfesting occurs in September. Is there a method to this madness? Of course! Simply put, September weather is more conducive to the many open-air activities of Oktoberfest (with nightly lows in Munich around 50 °F, versus the chilly 40 °F of October). The first ‘Fest began on October 12, 1810, with the festive marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. But the annual autumn festival that grew out of those royal nuptials shifted to take advantage of September’s temperatures—more comfortable for strolling (or stumbling) about in Lederhosen and Dirndl dresses. And, despite the calendar, the name Oktoberfest stuck because “Late Septemberfest” just doesn’t have the same ring to it…

Glass Beer Steins – Set of 2 | $60

Older Posts

Newer Posts