Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Methuselah, a bristlecone pine hidden within California’s Inyo National Forest, takes its name from the Bible’s longest-living figure, though it put down roots some 2,700 years before the birth of Jesus. Nestled within California’s White Mountains, the nearly 4,800-year-old tree lives within a grove of fellow bristlecones that may reach around 5,000 years of age. That long life span isn’t because of their location — the Inyo National Forest is known for being a hostile environment for plant life, combining high altitude with extreme temperatures that only the most persistent lifeforms can endure. Bristlecone pines grow slowly, an estimated inch per century, in effect making these resilient trees defenseless against vandalism and over-trafficking (one reason the U.S. Forest Service gives for not publicizing Methuselah’s exact location). The Guinness Book of World Records currently considers Methuselah the oldest living individual tree in the 

D ecades before Albert Einstein became a pop culture phenomenon by sticking out his tongue on his 72nd birthday, he was an emerging theoretical physicist on the brink of a major revelation: that massive objects cause space-time to curve, resulting in gravity. Einstein’s theory of general relativity, published in 1915, introduced the groundbreaking idea that gravity is not a force but a curved field created by the presence of mass. The problem was proving it. Einstein claimed the theory could be tested by measuring the position of stars near the sun, which would appear to shift slightly as gravity from the sun bent the path of light. This type of experiment was difficult to perform in the early 20th century, but a perfect opportunity soon presented itself: the total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919.

Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society sent two expeditions to test Einstein’s theory during the eclipse. A group led by British physicist Arthur Eddington was based on the island of Príncipe off the coast of West Africa, and a second team went to Sobral, Brazil. The total eclipse allowed scientists to get a better view of the stars closest to the sun as the moon blocked nearly all the light from the sun. If Einstein was correct, the light produced by the stars would bend due to the sun’s gravity. 

During the eclipse, the scientists were amazed as the stars seemed displaced from their usual locations because their light traveled to Earth on a curved plane around the sun. The light was deflected by around 1.7 arc seconds, just as Einstein had predicted, proving the physicist’s idea that gravity isn’t a force but a geometric distortion of space-time. Thanks to the experiment, the Royal Astronomical Society officially recognized Einstein’s theory of general relativity on November 6, 1919, roughly four years after its publication.

John Wayne, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Clint Eastwood — think of nearly any actor known for starring in classic Westerns and they have one thing in common: They’re all white. The popular narrative, however, doesn’t tell the full story. Historians estimate that as many as one in four American cowboys were Black, as many formerly enslaved African Americans found work on the ranches out West in the wake of the Civil War. What’s more, the cowboy culture didn’t even originate in the United States; it came from a style of ranching introduced by Spanish colonists in the 16th century and adopted originally in Mexico, where cattle ranchers and herders were known as “vaqueros.” By the late 19th century, as many as one in three cowboys were Mexican.

Almost everything about Attila the Hun’s life was remarkable, including his death. Though some details of the story remain unknowable — this was the year 453 CE, after all — we do know that the leader of the Hunnic Empire married a beautiful young woman named Ildico just as he was preparing his latest attack on the Eastern Roman Empire, then ruled by Marcian. The celebration lasted all night, with Attila leading the way by drinking and feasting to his heart’s content. But his guards became nervous when he didn’t wake at the normal time the following morning. Breaking down the door to the bridal chamber, they found their leader dead and his new wife sobbing at his side.

Attila had no visible wounds; according to an account from Byzantine historian Priscus (a diplomat who had dined with Attila), the Hunnic leader had choked to death on his own blood after suffering a drunken nosebleed. Though some later theories suspected Ildico of foul play, and others thought Marcian was somehow behind it, no proof has ever emerged for either theory. Attila is far from the only world leader to depart this mortal coil under strange circumstances, of course. King Adolf Frederick of Sweden ate himself to death after consuming everything from lobster and caviar to champagne and a sweet roll called “semla.” Greece’s King Alexander I, meanwhile, was done in by an infected monkey bite, and Greek philosopher Chrysippus is thought to have died of laughter after seeing a donkey eat his figs.